Synesthesia
by JonaBee
Summary: Misato Katsuragi points a finger at a party. Where that finger lands doesn't seem like much, but it turns out to have profound consequences for everyone in the EVA Universe, and some who aren't.
1. Prologue: That One

Synesthesia

Summery: Misato Katsuragi points a finger at a party. Where that finger lands doesn't seem like much, but it turns out to have profound consequences for everyone in the EVA Universe, and some who aren't.

Disclaimer: Yeah, you saw the series listed in this fic's crossover listing, didn'tcha? Do you really think a big shot series writer would be putting their work here? With the answers to those two questions, I'm willing to bet you can figure out the rest.

Ahem, well, we've learned something today. MSTing episodes of Evangelion at twice normal speed, after watching Evangelion Abridged, is not healthy for one's sanity.

As exhibit A, we present this fanfic.

At least it isn't the original idea we had... *Shudder*

Prologue: That One.

"That one," Ritsuko Akagi looked up from the magazine she was reading, while lounging on a small couch in the corner of a large, bustling room to stare at her best friend Misato, the purple haired woman pointing unsteadily with one finger.

"Excuse me?" The brunette asked, trying to trace the path the other's finger made, and eventually figuring out that Misato was pointing to a dark haired guy who was sitting alone at a table on the other side of the room, writing on a pad of paper and attempting, as best he could, to ignore the barely controlled chaos of the party surrounding him. "Oh no, you're not doing that again," the computer major groaned, rubbing her nose with the hand that wasn't holding her reading material.

"Why not?" Misato asked, rolling her shoulders. "So it didn't work out too well last time, it's entirely possible that it could be different!"

"Last time," Ritsuko returned acidly, "you got both yourself and him stone drunk, and threw up all over my new sheets."

"Aw, you're no fun, Rits," Misato said, standing up. "I'm gunna go pick him up."

"Well, count me out of it," the less inebriated woman replied, going back to her magazine. Still, as Misato approached the black haired guy, she kept an eye out past the corner of the page, if only because the other woman needed some restraint, sometimes.

After five minutes, Misato had somehow convinced the black haired guy to buy her a drink, though the method had apparently involved some standing up and hard glares, and after ten, the brown haired college student was starting to worry for the poor guy, as three beers had apparently hit him like a small truck.

By the time both parties had hit five, and the guy's head was starting to dip to the tabletop, Ritsuko decided she should probably interfere, if for no other reason than to rescue the lightweight. Tucking her magazine in her purse, she stood and made her way across the room, dodging a drunken member of the college football team as she went. "Misato?" She called, as the purple haired woman slammed back another can of Yebisu, planting it on the table, and the black haired guy, who Ritsuko now recognized wore his hair in a pigtail running down his back, as well as an unusual red silk shirt, attempted to emulate her.

"What do ya want, Rits?" Misato demanded, irritably. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of something here?"

"Yes, but if you'll recall, you've got an economics paper due tomorrow that you haven't finished yet," the computer major said, patiently.

"Correction!" Misato shot back, "that I haven't started yet!"

"Right, that you haven't started yet, so shouldn't we get home and turn in early?" Ritsuko replied.

"Yeah, I guess you've got a point," the Katsuragi woman grudgingly agreed. Ritsuko was about to sigh in relief, when Misato's drinking partner abruptly shot to his feet.

"Hey, hey, um, wait a sec," the pigtailed man stuttered, trying to get his eyes to focus. "We're not done here, I haven't…. haven't… won, yet!"

"Won?" Ritsuko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Only way I could get him to drink with me was to challenge him to a contest," Misato replied. "He's so cute, he actually thinks he can beat me."

"Hey, I can beat ya," the guy objected. "We just…. We… what was I supposed to be challenging you in, again?"

"Wow, he's really smashed," Ritsuko observed. "What'd you do, dope his drinks?"

"Nope, straight Yebisu," Misato replied, shrugging. "Just a really light weight."

"Well, you got him to buy you your booze, we should probably help the poor guy out," Ritsuko said, sighing. "Where do you live?"

The pigtailed man blinked at the brunette for a moment, and then scratched the back of his neck. "Um, Tendo Dojo, District 15, Tokyo-2?" He asked, hopefully.

"No way, I'm not driving him all the way out there," Misato objected. "I'd get pulled by a highway patrolmen for sure!"

"I doubt that's where he lives right now," Ritsuko shook her head. "Probably just too drunk to remember. Let's just take him to our place and let him sleep it off on the couch."

"Hey, sounds like a good idea to me," Misato said, with a lecherous grin.

"Misato…" Ritsuko groaned, but at this point, she didn't feel like arguing with her friend. She'd only come to this party because Misato wanted to, and wouldn't shut up about it, and after listening to about two hours of what the speakers were blasting out, laughingly called classic rock, she'd be willing to let the other get away with just about anything as long as it meant getting back home and into a nice, comfortable bed. "Let's just go."

"Sure thing, Rits!" The Katsuragi woman said, "C'mon, you."

"…right," The pigtailed man said, as Misato grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him after her as she followed Ritsuko out of the room. Several seconds later, a brown haired man entered from the washrooms near the table, fixing his collar and trying to look inconspicuous.

"Hey, Ranma?" He asked, looking down at the table where he'd left his roommate to the math problems he'd been trying to work out. Seeing the other's notepad still laying on the table, along with a pyramid of beer cans that topped at least a foot and a half, he whistled. "Wow, I thought he wasn't getting into the party, guess I was wrong." Saying this, Ryoji Kaji turned back from the table, deciding to let his roomie find whatever fun he could while he went girl hunting.

Strange, though, the cute purple haired girl he'd been scoping out before he'd left to have fun with another pretty girl had left the party. "Oh well, plenty more fish in the sea," he decided, offhand. It wasn't as though he was having a bad night, after all.

HR.

His head hurt. It hurt quite a lot, as a matter of fact, and about on a level that indicated that he'd either had a head-on collision with something large, bulky and fast moving or a few bottles of alcohol. As he tried to remember who'd hit him, he realized that for one of the few times in his life, it had actually been the latter that caused him so much pain.

The next question on his list was why the heck he'd indulged when he knew full well he couldn't hold his liquor, but that was lost in a haze of bad music and, most likely, worse ideas. He contemplated just rolling over and seeing if he could wait out the hangover, when he felt a jabbing sensation in the back, which had actually been what had woken him before.

Cracking his eyes slightly open, and preparing to roll over and face the jabber, Ranma' suddenly found himself looking into the sleeping face of a rather pretty purple haired girl, whose beauty was only slightly marred when her mouth opened wide, and she let off a loud snore.

"Oh damn it," he muttered, tilting his head downwards to note that yes, they were both naked, and yes, one of his arms was wrapped around her, crushing her body in close to his own.

"Well, I'm glad one of you's awake," a snide sounding woman's voice came from behind the pigtailed martial artist, and he braced to be walloped in the back of the head by a fiancee or something, before realizing that the voice he'd heard wasn't at all familiar, and that the Fiancees were back in district 15, a couple hundred miles from his current position.

Still, this was a very bad situation, even if he was pretty sure it wasn't what it looked like. After all, Kaji had gotten one of the girls he'd had over to crawl into his bed once as a joke, and he'd rather not repeat a rapid, down-corridor fleeing and apologizing session if he had no reason. "Okay, whoever that is, I'm guessing you're the one who poked me."

"Yup," the female voice came from behind him again.

"Just to clarify, anything happen last night?" He asked, crossing his fingers for luck on the hand that he was slowly trying to extricate from behind the purple haired girl's back without waking her.

"Well, from Misato's screams, I'm willing to bet on it, yeah," the woman replied. ""Plus, there's a condom in the trash over here."

Ranma abruptly stopped trying to escape, rolling backwards and letting out a long, low sigh. "Well, damn," he muttered. "Always thought Shampoo'd pull something like this, or something."

"What do hair products have to do with anything?" The female voice, which Ranma could now see from his new position belonged to a brown haired woman holding a broom handle and wearing a pair of blue slacks and a white shirt, asked.

"Wrong kinda shampoo," Ranma said, just as Misato rolled over, pulling herself close to his chest and muttering something about penguins in her sleep. Looking uncomfortably down at her head laying on his chest, he asked, "Um, a little help here?"

Ritsuko rolled her eyes, before smacking Misato on the back of the head with her broom handle. "Wha, huh?" The Katsuragi woman grumbled, looking up into Ranma's eyes. "Oh, hello," she said, in the closest approximation to cheerfulness she could get out before her morning shot of beer.

"You both act like this is normal," Ranma observed uncomfortably, as it looked as though Misato wasn't going to move off of him.

"It's not, but I've been expecting it to happen any day now," Ritsuko returned. "Misato, get up, you've got class in twenty minutes."

"I wha?" Misato articulated, artfully, before the other's statement processed, and her eyes widened. "Oh my god! I've got to get ready, and find my books, and then get over there before it starts, and…"

Ritsuko rolled her eyes, pointing over to a door leading out of the room, where a stack of books were piled, along with a set of folded clothes.

"Thanks Rits, you're the best!" Misato said, rolling off of Ranma and to the floor, before snatching the clothes and entering the small bathroom on one side of the room.

"This isn't how I figured it'd go," Ranma muttered, sliding partially off of the bed, before realizing that Ritsuko was still there, looking at him, and all he had for modesty was the sheet that he and Misato had been under, which she'd dragged part of the way off when she got up, and which he was sending the rest of the way with his movements. Gulping, he grabbed the edge of the blanket and made sure everything important was covered, before looking for his clothes.

"Um, where're my…" he started, before Ritsuko pointed to a computer across the room, where his red shirt hung off of one corner of the screen and his pants were thrown haphazardly over the chair.

Yeah, Ranma decided, this was probably going to be one of those days.

HR - Tokyo 3 - 2014.

"I couldn't get through again?" Shinji Ikari sighed, hanging up the phone and pulling the picture that had the number on it out of his pocket again, just to check the number, of course, and not to look at the rather pretty woman on it, who had an arrow pointing at her chest with a smiley face, even if someone had scribbled it out.

He was about to pick up the phone and try the number again, when a loud buzzing sound reverberated between the buildings, and he looked up to see several United Nations helicopters flying backwards over a mountain nearby, firing rapidly at something the brown haired boy couldn't see.

He wasn't actually able to tell what it was, as half a second later, he heard something impact with the ground behind him, and turned, ending up face to face with the woman from the picture.

"You Shinji Ikari?" She asked, gruffly.

"Um, yes?" He asked, unsure of precisely how the other had gotten behind him so quickly. His question was answered seconds later, as he found himself scooped off of his feet and into her arms, before her legs coiled beneath them and she leapt onto the roof of the train station.

"Sorry about this, kid, but I don't actually have a car," she apologized, as Shinji clutched her for dear life, not even particularly noticing that his knuckles were turning white. As he finally wrenched his view away from the top of the building they were heading towards, he firmly thought he would regret it. When he noted a huge, skeletal black and white monstrosity destroying the helicopters he'd seen earlier, he absolutely knew it.

At the moment, he wasn't really sure if he should be screaming due to his method of transportation, or the monster which he could see was heading roughly in the same direction he was. One thing was for sure, though, he probably should be screaming. Five seconds later, the screaming began.

HR.

"What in the world did you do to him?" Dr. Ritsuko Akagi asked, as she stood in front of an elevator, looking at the trembling form of the Third Child.

"Well, I don't think it was all me," Ranma Saotome said, as she looked sheepishly down at the boy herself. "Riding the shock wave of the N2 mine into the car tunnel probably did most of it, and I only had to do it because someone didn't think to give me the keys to the car."

Ritsuko momentarily contemplated Ranma's last encounter with a car, a tree, and two guard rails. "For a very, very good reason," she opined, grasping Shinji by the shoulder. "Come on now. We have to go see your father."

"M... my father?" The Ikari boy asked, and Ritsuko nodded, rather suspecting that mentioning him would work.

"That's right," Ranma continued. "We're at NERV Headquarters. I was supposed to give you a packet to read while we came here, but didn't think it was a good idea, so here you go." Saying this, she produced a slightly water drenched envelope from apparently nowhere, giving it to Shinji.

"Good thing that thing was waterproofed," Ritsuko muttered, as the elevator arrived.

"So," Shinji asked, as the three stepped into it, "my father asked me here because of NERV?"

"Sort of," Ranma said, nervously tugging on her pigtail.

"I thought so," Shinji muttered. "He never contacts me unless he wants something."

Both of the women looked at each other, neither particularly willing to stick up for Gendo, especially since Shinji was completely correct. "So," Ranma said, attempting to change the subject slightly. "Does the commander have any idea how we're supposed to fight off this Angel? Unit 00's not fully repaired yet."

"Other than throwing you at it?" Ritsuko said with a half smirk. "He's ordered us to prepare Unit 01 for activation."

"But Unit 01's never activated before, has it?" Ranma asked, and as the two NERV employees continued talking, Shinji, who had calmed down slightly from the state he'd been in when he first arrived, began thinking.

At the moment, he wanted nothing more than to run away, as quickly as he possibly could, and find a nice rock, preferably somewhere in Canada, to hide under. As he was debating between Vancouver and Toronto, the elevator's doors slid open, and he followed the others out without thinking. This turned out to be a bad idea, as when they entered a completely dark room and the door slammed behind them, he was rather confused.

When the lights flickered on, and he found himself staring into a giant, purple, metallic face, his confusion turned quickly to terror. "What... what is that?" He squawked, fearfully.

"That," Ritsuko announced proudly, "is the artificial lifeform, Evangelion."

Shinji abruptly raised the NERV information booklet he'd been given, trying to find the machine in it, as well as shielding his face from its creepy white stare, before Ranma interrupted, chuckling. "Sorry, but Unit 01's not going to be listed in there... or if it is, I've got a subordinate ta fire."

"Well then, why are you showing me?" Shinji asked, confused.

"Because you're going to pilot it." This wasn't Ranma or Ritsuko's response, but a new person, a man in a dark jacket who stood in an observation room above Unit 01's head.

"Oh great, it's the fearless leader," Ranma mumbled, sourly, as Ritsuko gave her a warning look.

"Father?" Shinji stuttered, looking up into the older man's glasses.

"Are you nuts, Commander? This kid's never even been in an EVA before, we can't deploy him." Ranma continued, apparently having missed Ritsuko's warning glance completely, or deliberately ignored it.

"Well, Pilot Ayanami isn't on the base, so it appears we have no choice," Gendo Ikari replied acidly, leveling a death glare at the Saotome.

Ranma sighed. The hell of it was that the commander had a point. Unfortunately, Shinji apparently agreed with her about being unwilling to pilot Unit 01, because he was clenching his eyes shut, and if the pigtailed operations officer was reading his expression right, about to start yelling.

"So the only reason you asked me here was to pilot this thing?" He demanded, loudly. "Well, I'm not going to do it! I don't see why I should help you, when you..." His voice had been trailing off through the second half of his statement, and at the end he just stared at the ground.

"All right, then we'll have to try and retrieve Rei," Gendo ordered, about to turn around, when the room abruptly rumbled and a voice crackled over an intercom system.

"Commander, the Angel is attempting to breach the Geofront!"

Wincing at the feeling of an obvious impact, Ranma bent down to Shinji's eye level. "Sorry, kid, but your dad's not the only one in danger here," she said. "The angel's not just after the city. When it busts through, it's gunna use what's down here to cause a disaster like Second Impact... somehow."

"Well, get someone else to do it, then," Shinji said, bitterly.

"We would, but everyone else's in the shelters, and we don't have time to get 'em out," Ranma explained. "About now, the only thing I can think of to do other than send you up's to go myself while they retrieve Rei, and I'm pretty sure my wife'd kill me if I let an angel kill me."

Ritsuko couldn't help but snort, even with the seriousness of the situation. "Yeah, I hear she's vicious," she said, with a half smile.

"So, you wanna keep me from having to sleep on the couch for all eternity?" Ranma asked, before the Geofront shook again, and there was a loud crashing sound nearby as a beam impacted with one end of the catwalk. "We don't got much time."

"Well, I..." Shinji stuttered, unsure. It was true, he didn't want to cave to what his father wanted, but the way Ranma described it, there was a lot on the line, here. "I'll do it," he finally muttered, barely loudly enough for the martial artist's keen senses to hear it.

This meant, of course, that it came as a complete shock to Ritsuko when Ranma straightened up, nodded, and said "Get the kid to the entry plug, and prepare Unit 01 for launch. Also, could someone put some hot water on for after this is over?"

END.

Well, that's it, folks. The first chapter of an Evangelion collaberation. Before you ask, next chapter of (Favorite fic of ours here) is coming... just as soon as we get up the motivation... which will probably be Thursday, when the Vogon constructor fleet takes up standard orbit around our planet.


	2. Chapter 1: It's a trick Get an Axe

Chapter 1: It's a trick... Get an Axe.

"I'm gunna die," Shinji Ikari thought as he felt the final jolt that signified that the forty meter tall robot he was sitting in was now locked into place on a giant catapult, about to be shot through a tube barely wider than its shoulders. "I'm gunna die..."

"Well, he's taking it well," Aoba muttered, from his seat in the main control area of Central Dogma.

"He's not ready for this," Ranma agreed, frowning darkly. "Hyuga, reroute the catapult to the south edge of the city."

"Yes, sir," the bespectacled lieutenant said, recalling what had happened to the last poor bastard to call the strategic operations officer Ma'am. "That'll slow the launch by about fifteen seconds."

"What're you doing, Ranma?" Dr. Akagi asked, from next to the redhead.

"Well, Ritsuko, how'dya feel about running a five minute EVA driving tutorial?" Ranma asked. "The previous plan was assuming he'd be able to walk, let alone fight, so we're changing it a little."

"I hope you're aware of what we're risking, Mr. Saotome," Gendo's voice came from where he sat, in his chair above the rest of the room. Ranma didn't respond, as she watched the new route draw itself up the launch tubes, finally locking into place with a solid meep, because someone had been feeling rather whimsical during the programming stage.

"We're ready, Sir," Hyuga said, quickly.

Ranma looked up to the video screen that showed Shinji, apparently starting to show the thousand yard stare, and shrugged. "All right, EVA Launch!"

As Unit 01 thundered up its launch shaft, and Ritsuko quickly slipped into a chair, picking up a communications headset in preparation to speak to Shinji directly, Ranma turned to Maya.

"Miss Ibuki, how much of the city defense grid's accessible from here right now?" She asked, sharply.

"About fifteen percent," Maya returned. "Most of the other emplacements are at least partially operational, but not connected yet."

"Okay, then it's time to give the Third Child some cover, bring up all emplacements on the opposite side of the city from Unit 01, and fire at will!" The strategic operations officer ordered, loudly, ignoring the fact that Gendo had just shot up from his chair, and was scowling ferociously at her.

HR.

He wasn't dead yet. He almost wished he was, as his stomach had apparently executed an elbow drop on his small intestine, but he, and Unit 01, were still in one piece, standing in what appeared to be the shell of an office building on the edge of Tokyo 3.

"Pilot Ikari, can you hear me?" Shinji heard a voice, but his eyes had trouble focusing. "Pilot Ikari, respond please."

"Huh?" He managed to croak out, blinking.

"Pilot Ikari, this is Dr. Akagi. We're trying to buy you the time to learn to operate your EVA, but you're going to have to follow my directions. Understood?"

"Y...yeah," the brown haired boy said, crushing the little voice in the back of his head that made him wonder why he was doing this as he saw a large explosion in the distance, silhouetting the form of the Third Angel.

"All right, Shinji. The Evangelion is controlled by the pilot's thoughts and intentions," Ritsuko's voice came over the radio again. "That means that when you think of Unit 01 doing something, it will do it. Unfortunately, feedback from this means that when something damages Unit 01, you will feel it as well."

"Huh?" The brown haired boy said again, his mind trying to grasp what was being told, but in fairness to him, he'd been carried over rooftops, almost exploded by an N2 mine, and thrown into a giant vat of blood-flavored Tang already today, and his brain was starting to slow due to sensory overload.

"Just imagine Unit 01 taking a step," Ritsuko said, sighing in what sounded like familiar exasperation.

Shinji nodded, and the Evangelion moved one foot slowly and deliberately forward, coming down and crushing someone's mailbox. He winced, but Ritsuko nodded. "Very good, now keep going," the scientist encouraged, and Shinji moved another step forward, and then another, before a loud and bright explosion distracted him, causing him to topple forward onto his face.

He was immediately aware that Ritsuko hadn't been lying about the EVA feeding its pain back on him, as his elbows and knees started to twinge in pain.

"All right, Shinji, just get back up," Ritsuko said, reassuring, but Shinji heard something not nearly as reassuring from the chatter behind her.

"Captain, batteries four and seven have just been obliterated, we've only got three sets of missiles left, and the artillery cannons are all gone!" A rather panicky male voice reported, and Shinji winced.

As he managed to haul himself to his feet, he saw that the angel was marching slowly and deliberately back to where it had been when NERV's barrage had disturbed it, not really paying attention to the last few projectiles that smashed into an orange barrier that it threw up behind itself as though it could hardly be bothered.

"All right," Ritsuko said. "I'm going to release the progressive knife in your EVA's left shoulder pylon. I want you to reach up and take it. We're running out of time."

"Y... yes, Ma'am," Shinji gulped, as he saw the angel's eyes glow red, and it unleashed a blast of power into the bottom of a crater it was working on digging into NERV Headquarters. Reaching up, the Third Child grasped the hilt of the weapon, almost fumbling it as he drew it.

"Okay," Ritsuko said, having apparently failed to remember to close her channel. "He's as ready as he'll ever be."

Abruptly, the sound of the communications channel changed, and Shinji could hear the status reports shot around by the Central Dogma crew even more clearly as one reported the missile launchers were jammed. "Shinji, get ready, we can't distract the Angel any further, and it'll only take a few more blasts for it to break through the armor. I want you to engage it now," Ranma ordered, and then laughed. "Remember, you screw up and I'm on the couch."

The third child couldn't stop himself from chuckling slightly at the sheer absurdity of that statement, before narrowing his eyes and beginning to move Unit 01 forward across the city. He was raising his progressive knife, psyching himself up for the first attack, when the orange barrier that had stopped NERV's attacks earlier suddenly sprang up again, stopping him in his tracks.

"Damn, the angel's brought up its AT Field!" Ritsuko cursed.

"Its what?" The third child snapped, in a rather hard to define mixture of fear and exasperation.

"Just concentrate on breaking through that orange field with one of your own," Ritsuko immediately returned. "Imagine that you're trying to punch your way through a piece of paper."

"Right," Shinji said, rearing back again and smashing the hand with the progressive knife in it forward, where it smashed into the AT Field, and a second one began to form, the two resonating and fading out. Unfortunately for Shinji, the moment they were completely gone, the angel reached up, grabbing his arm with one hand, stopping its forward progress, and punching him in the chest with the other.

It felt vaguely like being hit by a truck as Unit 01 was actually picked up from the blow, and flung about a hundred meters into an office building. Abruptly, a new display sprang into existence at the side of the entry plug, counting down ominously.

"Unit 01's just lost its umbilical cable!" Aoba reported.

"Wait, you mean it was plugged in?" Shinji asked, trying to struggle his way to his feet as the Third Angel stomped towards him, its bird like face looking more menacing than anything that plain and featureless had a right to. Unfortunately, the EVA didn't get the chance to stand, as one three fingered hand clamped over its head before it could get much past its knees, lifting it the rest of the way up.

"Wha... Gah!" Shinji yelled, as a lance of burning pain speared into one eye. Instinctively, he reached up to clamp a hand over his eye, and it encountered the angel's arm. Scrabbling desperately as a second shot of agony went through him, he grabbed whatever he could get a hold of, and twisted. There was a seemingly deafening snap, and the third angel bellowed in rage, kicking Unit 01 straight through the building it had previously crashed into.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," Shinji moaned, holding one hand over his eye. "it hurts, oh god, it hurts..."

"Shinji!" Ranma called, "it's just the EVA, you're fine, you have to work past the pain!"

"But it hurts!" The Ikari boy screamed, and Ranma sighed, as the angel stomped down the street, preparing to break Unit 01 in half. Those in the command center could only watch helplessly as the titanic monster continued towards Shinji and his EVA.

As it approached one building, however, Ranma's eyes widened. "Hyuga, open weapons cache 27, activate weapon AX3, and release the restraint locks when I tell you to."

"Yes sir," the brown haired man said, typing rapidly as Ranma turned back to Shinji.

"Shinji, you can make the pain stop, y'know," She said, conversationally. "We can cut off your nervous link to the EVA, but we won't do that, do you know why?"

"Shinji didn't respond, just groaning, but his hand did start moving away from his eye. "We can't let you stop until you've killed the Angel, Shinji. I'm sorry, but that's just how we gotta do it," Ranma continued. "Now."

"Huh?" Shinji asked, as a building nearby abruptly opened up, something large and glowing falling from it, and straight into the Angel's side. The thing screeched in agony, clawing at its side. Knowing that this was his chance, Shinji and Unit 01 lurched up to a sitting position, and then forward to grasp the handle of what turned out to be a huge axe with a glowing blade. Ripping it out of the furrow it had cut in the ground, the third child brought it around to chop through the angel with all of his might, before he, and his EVA, fell forward with a massive thud, unmoving.

"...Is it dead?" Ranma asked, nervously, looking at the angel where it had fallen to the ground in two pieces.

"Its core was struck by the blow," Aoba reported. "It's building up a large energy reaction."

"That means..." Ritsuko said, and her eyes widened, as the angel erupted in white light, flinging Unit 01 backwards and tearing up the nearby buildings.

"Well..." Ranma said, when the screen had cleared of the blinding flash, "that worked, sorta."

HR.

"Locking Unit 01 down now," Aoba said, reclining at his station and studying the various dents that covered the EVA unit. "First launch, and it comes back with three weeks worth of body work."

"Anyone got the hammer?" Hyuga quipped, as he went over the integrity of the cage locks.

"That isn't funny," Maya grumbled. "Someone was in there, you know."

Both men shuddered at the reminder. "We were trying to forget," Hyuga noted. "Did you see the kid when they brought him out?"

"Trying to forget, remember?" Aoba muttered, sourly. "Besides, the kid's going into the infirmary. I'd be more worried about the captain. D'you see Commander Ikari's face when he called her into his office?"

"We will pray for him," Hyuga said, solemnly, eliciting small chuckles from the other two.

"That may be a good idea," Sub-commander Fuyutsuki observed, as he stepped into the room from the door leading to the commander's station.

"Sir!" The three techs said, nervously, before doing their damnedest to look busy.

HR.

"Well, you look cheerful," Ranma glared at the brown haired woman who reclined next to the coffee machine, before taking a cup for himself, sipping at it.

"The dark emperor is displeased," the Saotome man intoned solemnly. "He seems not to realize that we're not keeping the city defenses around to look pretty."

"Well we might as well be, with how effective they have proven so far." the woman rolled her eyes. "Especially with so few of them operational."

"Yeah, that's what he was complaining about," Ranma nodded. "Kept yelling that we'd need them when they were all complete. It's almost like he knows something about the angels I don't, or something."

"Which he probably does," the brunette said, setting her cup down. "I've heard back about the Third Child, he's recovering well in the hospital but they're keeping him under until tomorrow afternoon to make sure there's no complications from the nervous feedback."

"And then what?" Ranma asked. "He's going to go move in with the commander and be part of a happy family?"

"Nope, staff housing," the woman chuckled. "And yes, I know exactly what you just started thinking."

"Will you let me do it again?" Ranma asked, looking at her curiously.

"Well, he can't be any worse than the last one," she said, smiling up at him and kissing him before pulling back. "Have I ever told you that your bleeding heart's kind of cute?"

"A couple times," he muttered, blushing. "Now I've got some reports to fill out, and I'm guessing you want a crack at that angel data."

"Don't forget I've got a toy you broke to fix, too," Dr. Ritsuko Akagi smirked sardonically, before walking down the hall away from her husband.

HR.

Shinji Ikari's head hurt. If he'd have known the sensation, he would have equated how he was feeling as he cracked open his eyes to the worst hangover ever, but as he didn't, he merely squinted up at the pale tiling, and muttered "Unfamiliar ceiling..."

He hadn't really slept anywhere but the bed in his guardians' home, so finding an unfamiliar ceiling when he woke up was rather startling. Sitting, and wincing at the pain he felt from his still throbbing head, he noted that he was in a rather spartan white room, it only identified as a hospital room by the scent of antiseptic that seemed to infuse all of said places.

Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he stood and walked unsteadily across the room to stare out at a well lit cityscape, still sporting damage from the battle the night before. "So... it wasn't a dream?" He asked, a phantom twinge that was almost lost in his general discomfort reminding him of the pain he'd felt in his eye.

After that, everything came rushing back, and he stumbled forward slightly, bracing against the window ledge to keep himself upright. "Shinji?" An unfamiliar voice came from the doorway behind the young Ikari, and he turned to see a man wearing what he recognized as the NERV Uniform, with the same rank symbols, and even hairstyle, that the red haired woman, Ranma, had worn the night before.

"Um, yes?" The younger boy said, nervously, wondering if he was going to be put back into the giant robot, or something.

"I'm glad you're awake," The man said, nodding. "I was told you'd be up now, so I came by ta apologize for pulling that stunt on you last night."

"What stunt?" Shinji asked, uncertain.

"Oh, right," the man muttered. "Knew I forgot something."

Ranma Saotome hadn't ever really been one for subtlety or gentleness when he felt it wasn't necessary. This somewhat explained why he'd expected Shinji to be capable of fighting an Angel after a minute long training session the night before, and also explained why, after realizing that the younger boy hadn't seen the curse, he walked over to a pitcher full of water on the small table next to the boy's hospital bed, pouring a glass of water from it and dumping it over his head.

"Guh?" Shinji said, articulately, as he was now staring into the eyes of the woman he recognized as Ranma Saotome. Slowly, wondering if the EVA had driven him insane after all, he stepped forward, lifted his arms, and squeezed. "Yes, they're real, and you're real lucky you look like you're still in shock, got it?" The woman said, before pulling Shinji's hands away.

"Uhhuh," the Ikari boy said, nodding rapidly.

HR.

"So," Shinji said, as he and the man who was apparently Ranma Saotome's default form walked down the halls of NERV, "my father said that I was going to move into employee housing?"

"Yeah, but I've already lodged a request to have you move in with Ritsuko and I," Ranma replied. "If you wanna take up the offer of your own place later, that's fine, but you're new to the city so we figured you should stay around some people for a while."

"No, I'll stay with you," Shinji said, uncertainly, and Ranma frowned. The boy's voice sounded like he thought that if he made a decision, of any sort, the world would end.

"You'll probably like our place," the pigtailed officer said. "We got to move in when the city was first being populated, so it's nice and big."

"Mmhmm," Shinji said, only paying attention with half an ear as he watched people going past on various errands throughout the facility. As the two reached an elevator and it opened to reveal Gendo, Shinji was about to ensure that he didn't meet the older man's eyes, when he realized that he was glaring heatedly at Ranma, who was glaring right back.

When the doors closed, he spoke up. "You and my father... he doesn't seem to like you."

"He doesn't like anyone, kid," Ranma laughed.

Shinji didn't respond, only stepping in after the other when the next elevator arrived.

HR.

"Remind me again why I don't just shoot that idiot?" Gendo Ikari grumbled, as he and Kozo Fuyutsuki sat in the darkened holo-conference room, after a meeting with the SEELE council.

"Because then our lead computer scientist would probably leave the organization, it would be a Public Relations nightmare, and..." The older man smiled slightly at the next part, "you've already tried it."

"Yes," Gendo muttered, tightening his fingers' grip on each other in front of his mouth. Of course, the latest annoyance related to Saotome wasn't nearly as bad as what he'd done to the First Child, but the monetary expenditure had gotten the attention of the SEELE misers.

On the plus side, Unit 01 had defeated the first angel, and Shinji had piloted it as well as could be expected, so they hadn't questioned him nearly as much as he feared they might have over giving his son command of the machine.

"Are you approving their request regarding the Third Child?" Kozo asked, curiously.

Gendo snorted. "If they want to put up with him, let them," he grumbled, before standing. "We should return." He frowned. Of course, until the Fourth Angel arrived, about all he had to do back at NERV was contemplate his ceiling and argue with politicians over budget allocation.

It was too bad, really, but the path to his final plan, and the resurrection of Yui, was a long and perilous one, and he was sure that neither Saotome nor SEELE would stop him.

HR.

"Well, we're here," Shinji looked up from the back of Dr. Akagi's car as the older woman's voice interrupted his brooding. She'd told him that he might want to look out the window a few minutes previous, saying something about the city exiting battle mode, but he'd decided against it, not wanting to add to the weird crap he'd seen already.

"Are you coming, Shinji?" Ranma asked, after he noted that the Ikari boy had been sitting, staring at his legs in the back of the car for the past thirty seconds.

"Oh, yeah, I'm coming," Shinji said, stepping out of the car and looking around. What he saw was a decent sized apartment building, with the first floor apparently dedicated to a single unit.

He followed the two adults into that large apartment, noting that inside it looked almost like a decent sized house. "Just put your stuff in any empty room," Ranma called, as he walked down a long hall that stretched out from the living room with several doors along it. "And ya might wanna grab a bath, it's the door at the end of the hall."

After saying this, the pigtailed martial artist stopped at a door near the hall's end, opening it and walking in. "Uh..." Shinji started, confused.

"Sorry about him," Ritsuko said, causing Shinji to almost jump as he hadn't heard her walking up next to him. "Ranma's not very good with social niceties. Believe me, we're both glad you're here, okay Shinji-kun?"

Shinji just nodded, before carrying his bag down the hall, and finding that the second door he tried was to an empty room. Dumping his bag in the corner, he got the futon out of the closet and put it down before experimentally sniffing one armpit, wrinkling his nose and heading for the bathroom.

On his way past the doors at the end of the hall, his eye caught on a flash of yellow, and he turned to notice that one of them had a hazardous area border painted around it, and a bright orange sign on the front. Curiously, he read "Ritsuko's Cat Room. Please ensure that Ranma Saotome is not within line of site before opening this door."

"Strange," he muttered, knocking on the warning sign, before his eyes widened. "Is this solid steel?" Shaking his head, he decided he didn't want to know, and opened the door to the furo, entering and quickly shucking his clothes in the changing room before opening the interior door.

"Oh, hello," a rather calm female voice greeted him as he stared in at the form of a naked blue haired girl who was just standing from the water. "Are you here to join me?"

I... huh?" Shinji managed to articulate, before his brain decided that it had taken far too much garbage today, and shut itself down.

END.

Yes, this chapter's twist did come a bit out of left field. Yes, that was Rei. Yes, we do know what we're doing, and No, the world doesn't turn into tang.. unless we get thirsty, then we aren't promicing anything.

Jonakhensu:...I'm starting to feel rather parched, actually.

Please R&R!


	3. Chapter 2: Three Thousand Points

Um, this chapter sends EVA screaming off of the rails. Please don't forget to wear your safety harness!

Chapter 2: Three Thousand Points.

Ritsuko let off a long, irritable sigh as she tapped her way through a performance review on the MAGI system. At the moment, it was exhibiting a very strange anomaly in processing power usage that she wasn't able to pin down. Actually, it was more like the continuation of an issue she'd been tracking for the past four years, but it was apparently getting worse now, and the last thing she needed was the entire city locking up in the middle of combat because of a memory leak.

Of course, her job was made even more irritating, as she queried Caspar's network activity during the largest spike, and saw that half of the packets were under an encryption she had no idea how to even start breaking. Lowering her head slowly to the tabletop, she considered joining her husband in one of his sparring sessions to work off some stress, but wasn't sure if he'd be willing to slow down enough after a day like today not to piss her off even further.

"Dr. Akagi?" It was Rei's voice, and the brown haired woman raised her head, trying to keep from glaring at the first child.

"Yes?" She asked, calmly.

"I believe the boy who entered the bathroom a few moments ago is injured," the blue haired girl reported, and Ritsuko noted that she was standing there wearing only a towel.

She cursed, standing from the kitchen table and feeling for her emergency medical kit in one pocket of her white lab coat, before following Rei into the bathroom, where she saw Shinji passed out with a dazed look on his face.

"Wait..." she said, looking at Rei, though she still crouched down to check the boy's vitals and make sure he hadn't gotten any head injuries."You forgot to put up the sign again, didn't you?"

"I don't see the purpose of..." the quiet girl started, and Ritsuko rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I know," she grumbled, contemplating trying to explain to the younger girl that most men didn't have Ranma's curse, and that he'd only ever bathed with her once... when she'd been injured enough that she could barely use one hand, Ritsuko had been at NERV at the time, and he had made sure all the water was just cold enough to keep him female. "Just help me get him dressed and onto the couch before Ranma finds him in here and either tries to kill him or falls down laughing."

"Yes, Ma'am," Rei said, grabbing the third child by the arms and hoisting him up.

HR.

Shinji woke once again from what he was pretty sure was a faint, to an unfamiliar ceiling. This time, however, his head didn't feel like it was going to explode, and there was a rather disconcertingly red set of eyes staring at him from a face that blocked most of said ceiling. "Gah!" He yelped, pushing himself away from the bright red gaze, and coming hard up against one arm of a couch.

"I am glad you are awake," the eyes' owner said, as his increased distance revealed her to be a girl of about his age, wearing a set of grey sweatpants and a pale blue t-shirt that matched her hair colour.

Shinji concentrated for a moment, remembering exactly why he'd fainted, and his face turned a pale shade of red. "I, um, I'm sorry I walked in on you," he apologized, quickly. "I didn't see a sign, and..."

"Don't worry about it," this time it was Ranma's voice, male this time, and Shinji looked to see the pigtailed man standing nearby, his arms crossed. "Rei's always forgetting to leave the sign up, I usually just call." Rei was about to open her mouth to comment about that, when Ranma interrupted her. "And yes, that is important," he said quickly.

"Oh, yes, I forgot," Rei said, before nodding and standing. Ranma winced, but didn't stop her as she made her way to the kitchen, filled a glass full of cold water, and returned, dumping it over Shinji's head.

"Glub," the Third Child articulated, before coughing. "What was that for?"

"You don't have one either," Rei observed, nodding assuredly. "My name is Rei Ayanami, pilot of Unit 00, and the First Child. Dr. Akagi has told me that you are Shinji Ikari, pilot of Evangelion Unit 01, and the Third Child. We are colleagues. I am glad to meet you."

"...Huh?" Shinji asked, as Rei extended a hand towards him.

When the Third Child didn't take the offered appendage, Rei looked over at Ranma, somewhat confused. "Did I not do it correctly?"

"Um, no," Shinji said, confusing the First Child even more, as he rapidly took her hand. "Um, nice to meet you."

"Good," Rei finally decided, after a few seconds of consideration.

HR.

Shinji awoke, as he usually did, when the sun began streaming in through his bedroom window. Staring upwards, he noted yet another unfamiliar ceiling, the third in two days, before rolling off of his futon and to his feet.

He was half way through quickly getting dressed, when he stopped, wondering exactly why he'd bothered. He wasn't at home, and would likely not even have school, but the only other thing he could think of to do was lay back down, and then he'd start thinking. He shuddered. At the moment, thinking too deeply was probably a really bad idea.

With that decided, he pulled his clothing the rest of the way on, and slid his door open, walking down the hall to note that all of the other doors were closed, and everyone was probably sleeping. On his way to the bathroom, however, he saw that the door across from the cat warning room was open a crack, and he could hear movement within.

This door was also made of metal, though it slid like most of the others in the house, rather than having a hinged door like the cat room. Curiously, he nudged it the rest of the way open, entering to see Ranma, doing what looked for all the world like the fastest ballet performance the Ikari boy had ever seen.

The older man's movements seemed far too fluid for anyone to be making this early in the morning, as he backflipped, landing on his hands and kicking out with both legs in different directions. Shinji winced just imagining how much he'd get hurt if he ever tried it.

"Um," He said, not really sure if he should be interrupting or not. "Good morning?"

Ranma responded instantly, shoving off with one arm and flipping sideways to land in front of Shinji, who blinked. "Morning, Shinji," the pigtailed man said, cheerfully. "Most people around here aren't up this early."

"What were you doing?" Shinji managed to blurt out, before he could think better of it.

"That was just a kata," Ranma explained. "Martial arts practice."

"Oh," Shinji said, blankly.

"Don't worry about it," Ranma shrugged, though he winced as he noted that Shinji barely seemed to recognize the concept of the martial arts. At this rate, he wouldn't be surprised if the Second Child's idea of combat training was video games. "Now you're up, I can start breakfast early, if you want."

"Um, I can help," the Third Child offered, tentatively.

"So long as your miso tastes better than Ritsuko's last attempt, sure," Ranma said, grinning as he headed for the practice room door.

Shinji said nothing, following.

HR.

"Hmm," Ritsuko nodded, as she crouched in front of Rei in the younger girl's room, tapping her lower leg. "Okay, stand on the one foot." Feeling the ankle that was on the floor, she smiled. "You're taking a crutch, but you should be all right to go back to school today."

"I've felt well enough to attend for the last several days," the blue haired girl said, her calm voice containing just a hint of annoyance.

"And which of us here has advanced medical training?" Ritsuko countered, gently. "You were hurt badly in the last activation test, and even with those strange healing techniques Ranma's been using, we wanted to make sure that you recovered correctly." She didn't say that she also wanted an excuse to study and try to replicate the results, but the thought was there.

"Understood," Rei said, though there was definitely a trace of a grumble in her voice this time, as she retrieved a crutch from next to her bed.

As the two exited the blue haired girl's room, Ritsuko sniffed, grinning as she smelled a nearly cooked breakfast. When they walked into the main living area and saw Shinji carrying a plate in from the kitchen, her eyebrow rose, but she didn't say anything.

Ranma followed the brown haired boy, carrying the pot of soup. "So," he said, catching sight of Ritsuko and Rei. "She ready to go back to class yet?"

Rei nodded.

"Good, then you can show Shinji around," Ranma continued, causing the Third Child to twitch and almost drop the plate he was holding.

"I didn't think you would have me in school already," Shinji noted, surprised.

"NERV works fast," Ritsuko smiled. "All of the city's records are on our computer system, so there's a lot less bureaucracy."

The Ikari boy nodded, taking his seat and beginning on his breakfast. He wasn't exactly against going back to school, and it would actually be nice to get back to something so normal after the day before.

HR.

The school building looked like any other Shinji had seen, though he hadn't seen that many. It was a large, three story building with a bunch of kids bustling around it, and a huge clock on the front that said they had made it just in time, in spite of having missed the first train.

As he sighed in relief, and Rei gave him a sidelong glance, one of the students from the horde near the front doors abruptly broke out of it, running towards them quickly. "Hey, you're back!" He called, excitedly.

"Huh?" Shinji asked, looking over to Rei, who nodded at the approaching boy.

"Greetings, Mr. Aida."

"You've been gone for a month and all you can say is 'greetings?'" The bespectacled boy snorted. "Especially after you piloted the EVA yesterday!"

"That wasn't me," Rei responded. "It was Pilot Ikari."

Shinji winced, having been considering trying to hide his pilot status from the students, especially since the boy had just turned away from Rei, apparently having noticed him for the first time. "They selected another pilot, and it was this guy?" The light brown haired boy complained, loudly. "Why didn't they pick me?"

"Perhaps your exuberance for the project is making them cautious?" Rei suggested.

"Well, I still say the EVA Arm Cannon would have worked," Kensuke sulked, as he fell in beside the two pilots, walking into school.

"Not one that replaces the entire forearm, and is only capable of firing twenty shots," Rei said, as though she'd had this argument several times before. "And I was actually speaking of the fact that your excitement would preclude the concentration required to successfully synchronize with one."

"Aw, you're mean," Kensuke grumbled, sourly.

HR.

Shinji sighed as he leaned back in the entry plug of Unit 01, the EVA hooked up to several dozen external input wires, and stared out across an artificial recreation of Tokyo 3.

He'd been right that going to school had been a nice way to relax after the day before, even if Kensuke wouldn't stop asking him how it felt to pilot an EVA, and a slightly too loud comment had caused the entire class to swarm all over him, asking him constant questions, but the second he and Rei had come home, Dr. Akagi had picked them up and driven them to NERV.

Rei, apparently, was being prepared to run an activation test with another Evangelion, Unit 00, while he sat here holding the largest rifle he'd ever laid eyes on. "All right Shinji," Ranma's voice came in through his comm. system. "The Big Cheese wants us to ensure that you're capable of using a pallet rifle in combat, even though I find it useless in almost any situation. In this training exercise, you'll be shooting targets. Try not to rely too heavily on the targeting computers, if you can figure out how to aim."

"Yes, sir." Shinji said, rather unenthusiastically, as the city skyline before him came to life, an image of the angel he'd fought the day before popping up and roaring at him. As he flinched and sent a few bullets into a nearby skyscraper, a white reticule appeared above the angel, and he instinctively fired as it locked on, sending the thing to the ground.

"All right, let's try that again," Ranma said, before frowning. Shinji had acknowledged what he'd been told, but had done so so lethargically, it was already setting off alarm bells in the older man's mind. The last thing he needed was a Shi Shi Hokodan in an entry plug, or something.

After several more Angels had been blasted into virtual atoms, and Shinji had started muttering "Position the target in the center and pull the switch," Ranma's frown deepened.

"That's it, put up a friendly target." He winced when Shinji blew away the image of Unit 01 just like the Angel. "Shinji, you've got to concentrate on what you're doing," he grumbled. "We're going to be putting friendly targets in the simulation now, and having the angels move so you can't rely on the computer. Try again."

"Yes sir," the Ikari boy sighed, as another angel appeared, this one charging towards him, and knocking several buildings aside in its run. Without thinking, he brought the gun up, held down the trigger, and put about three times as many holes in it as necessary.

"Well, that's... a start," Ranma decided.

HR.

"A-10 nerve connected," Ritsuko watched the synchrograph like a hawk, as Rei and Unit 00 slowly crept towards the borderline. Fortunately, unlike last time, there was a second EVA only one practice room away, but she shuddered at how much damage could be done to Rei in stopping Unit 00 if it went berserk again. "Rei, how are you feeling?" The doctor asked, taking her eyes from the graphs for a moment to look over at the video feed from the entry plug.

"The feedback is... fainter than last time," the First Child reported, slightly irritated at the inability to put her thoughts into clearer language.

"That would be the feedback blocks," Ritsuko responded. "We're hoping they keep Unit 00 from taking control like it did last time."

"Understood," Rei replied, as her synchronization crept up to, and then past, the borderline.

"Unit 00 is fully synchronized," Aoba reported, and from where he stood in the doorway to the test cage's observation room, Gendo nodded in approval.

"All right, run a full nervous response battery and then we'll disconnect her," Ritsuko ordered. "And keep an eye on that ego border reading."

"Yes, Ma'am," one of the other technicians in the room responded, quickly. As it seemed that the test would likely not go the way it had before, Gendo turned, leaving the room and heading for the other one, where Shinji was being tested.

As he opened the door to the control cage, several of the technicians had stopped watching their readouts, letting the MAGI save their data, as the Third Child rapidly sighted and fired on target after target.

"Come on, Shinji!" One yelled, as the brown haired boy sighted past a replica of Unit 01 to hit an angel which was using it as cover. As the final target appeared, the Third Child didn't really notice any differences from the others until he'd already started firing, seeing a picture of his father's head superimposed over the Angel's. Unfortunately, by then it was far too late to change his aim, and the angel exploded, followed by a modulated female voice announcing "Three thousand points."

The commander of NERV didn't make any noise as he entered the room, until he walked up next to Captain Saotome. "So, I see the Third Child's training is going well," he noted, trying to avoid clenching his teeth.

Unfortunately, Ranma managed to suppress his flinch, as he turned to face the older man. "Yes, sir. He's doing very well with the rifle."

"Very well," Gendo nodded, ignoring that most of the room was looking at the two of them, before turning and leaving. "Mr. Saotome, I will expect your report on this test by morning."

"Yes, sir," the pigtailed officer replied. When Gendo was out of the room, he turned to the techs, with a serious look on his face. "Miss. Ibuki, that was a very inappropriate thing you did, you know."

"Yes, Captain," the black haired computer tech said, nodding.

"Good, so long as the perpetrator's been reprimanded," Ranma said before retrieving three thousand yen from his pocket and handing it to her.

In the Evangelion, Shinji was just confused.

HR.

"So, I hear Rei managed to not blow up this time," Ranma quipped, peering over Ritsuko's shoulder as she went over the synchronization data from that day's test.

"They're both asleep, then?" Ritsuko asked.

Ranma nodded, as he walked around the table and dropped into a chair across from his wife. "Rei talked about the synchronization test during meditation tonight."

"Hnn," Ritsuko grunted, frowning. "Still trying to get her to channel Chi, hmm?"

"She's making progress," Ranma countered. "Even with her... odd... aura, I say it'll only be a few months before I can get her to manifest Chi externally, and then you've gotta admit I'm right about AT fields."

NERV's chief computer scientist smirked at the resurrection of an old argument. "Let's just drop that one before one of us says something stupid," she decided. For once, it wasn't just Ranma who had to worry about that, because one of the things that irritated her about her husband, at least her scientific education, was how he and his battle aura tended to treat physics as a rather poorly worded suggestion on how to do things. "Though I will admit whatever you've been doing since she got hurt has really been helping Rei's concentration."

Ranma nodded, as he poured a glass from the heated coffee pot that was next to the brunette's laptop. "How does Shinji's data look?"

Ritsuko stopped for a moment, tapping a few buttons and sending Rei's synchronization data to one side of the screen, pulling up Shinji's. "Well, he certainly synchronized with Unit 01 quickly," she admitted. "He's almost caught up with Rei's rate, and we've been training her for months."

"Kind of strange," the pigtailed man muttered. "There's really nothing special about him; I mean he's got less spine than..."

"Than you did in college?" Ritsuko smirked, causing her husband's eyebrow to twitch.

"Gee, thanks honey," he muttered. "But I'm serious, it's like he's been raised specifically to be completely indecisive."

"I repeat, kind of like you before college," Ritsuko shot back.

"Actually," Ranma grumbled, "you sorta have a point. Ya think it was for the same reason?"

"I'll let you know as soon as a fiancee shows up," Ritsuko replied.

"Rei asked me about that, tonight, too," Ranma replied, causing his wife to choke on her coffee. "Seems she thinks him living here and walking in on her in the bath qualifies him."

"Well how are we going to handle that?"

"I explained they were related," Ranma said, offhand. "Just told her to remember not to tell Shinji, at least not yet."

"Hmm," Ritsuko muttered, before shutting down her laptop. "All of these look as good as they can, and my back's killing me from swimming around doing maintenance on Unit 01 all afternoon."

"Real subtle hint there, Ritsuko," Ranma teased, though as he stood, there was a grin on his face.

"I've found sledgehammers work best with you," she said, unrepentantly.

HR.

Shinji Ikari was bored. Had you told him this a week ago, when he was being shot up a catapult to engage in mortal combat with a bird-faced monstrosity, he would have told you that you were insane, assuming he had the spine to voice his thoughts, and not to bother him, but he was. This had mostly to do with the fact that the school he'd come from was several weeks ahead of this one, and the first period teacher was one of the most repetitive human beings he'd ever met.

Looking down at his desk computer, he noted that even the constant questions about the EVA had dried up over the past few days, and at this point he'd almost welcome answering them. Peering across the room, past Rei and Kensuke and out the window, he noted that it was at least a sunny day, and the lunch bell was going to go off in a few minutes.

As he heard a soft ringing noise, he briefly thought it was the bell and was half way to his feet before Rei removed a small cellular phone from her book bag, and he realized the one in his pocket was ringing as well. The teacher was giving them both death glares, so he took the device out and answered it as quickly as possible. "H.. hello?" He asked, cautiously, as he was pretty sure he hadn't given the little phone's number to anyone.

"Shinji, please report to NERV. We've detected something that may be an Angel approaching the bay."

"An Angel?" The Third Child said, causing every eye in the room to turn to him in shock. "U-um, I'll be right there."

As he left, quickly followed by Rei, the chatter that had started at his exclamation was cut off by a firm female voice. "All right, if there's an Angel, we'll probably be called to shelters in a few minutes. Everyone please come up to the front of the class in an orderly fashion, and Aida! Get back here!"

"Yes class rep," Kensuke moaned, before Shinji left earshot.

HR.

"This sucks," Kensuke grumbled, several minutes later as he fiddled with the TV tuner that was part of his camera. "I can't get any signal down here."

"Would you stop complaining?" Toji Suzuhara, a taller boy who was sitting next to him, noticeably between him and the door, returned.

"Well, they aren't going to show any of the good parts on the news tonight, Kensuke complained. "C'mon Suzuhara, I know what the rep said, but you've gotta help me get out of here! We can both see the EVAs in action."

"Nope, I'm not letting you out of my sight, you little paramilitary nutbar," the black haired boy said, firmly.

"That 'cuz your girlfriend ordered you to?" Kensuke needled, immediately getting a twitch of the eyebrow from Toji. "Man, you're whipped."

"I am not," Toji snapped back.

"Whipped," Kensuke continued, leaning back in his seat and blissfully ignoring the fact that the other boy was coming closer and closer to punching his lights out. "If you're not, then help me get out of here to watch Rei... I mean, the EVAs."

"Fine," Toji grunted. "Class rep, Aida here says he's gotta go to the bathroom!"

"You don't have to tell the whole shelter about it," Hikari snapped. "Just go!"

HR.

"All right Shinji, we're giving you the pallet rifle this time. The Angel's still not entirely in the city yet, so it'll be a good time to test ranged weapons against it." Ranma's voice came through to Shinji's entry plug, as the Third Child clamped his hands around the EVA's control handles, his knuckles probably turning white within the gloves of his plug suit. "We've got very little idea of this Angel's capabilities, save the fact that it has some form of energy whips that have been very effective against United Nations attack forces. Be careful of them, both of you."

"Yes, sir," Rei's voice came from Unit 00, which was standing on the catapult next to Shinji's, the first time the Third Child had seen the orange and blue Evangelion.

"Shinji?" Ranma asked, as the brown haired boy hadn't responded.

I've got it," He said, quickly, and the other side of the communications line quickly descended into a rapid exchange of technobabble and tactical reports that he wasn't really able to follow, before he heard the strategic operations officer yell "EVAs Launch!" And his stomach once again tried to make an escape through his feet as Unit 01 flew up its launch shaft.

When his eyes stopped blurring, he found himself standing in the middle of the road, a weapons building next to him open, and a pallet rifle hanging there for him to grab. He did so almost as an after thought as he stared at the floating thing that dominated most of the skyline in front of him, like some sort of alien jellyfish. As the thing turned towards him, apparently noticing the giant robot that had just appeared in the city it had been content with floating menacingly over, Shinji held down the trigger on the rifle, sending round after round into its AT Field with no effect.

"Shinji, stop. Short, controlled bursts, remember?" Ranma's voice reprimanded sharply as a large cloud of smoke obscured the Angel from view.

"Right," the EVA Pilot said, trying to slow his breathing and calm himself in spite of the fact that he was pretty sure the Angel was glaring at him as the smoke parted. Hearing a stomping noise nearby, he saw that Rei was walking up next to him, her progressive knife out, and an orange AT field forming in front of both of them in order to deflect the enemy's tentacles as they lashed out in retaliation.

"Pilot Ikari, please cover me while I attempt to neutralize the enemy," the First Child's calm voice reverberated around Shinji's entry plug, as her face stared at him from a video screen off to the side.

"Um, right," he muttered, as Rei's AT field seemed to disperse, in actuality mingling with the Angel's in order to cancel it out. Shinji tried to project his own, but it wasn't working terribly well, so he began laying down fire in front of Unit 00, causing the Angel to rear back in obvious discomfort from the bullet wounds it was taking. Unfortunately, just as Rei was reaching melee range, one of the thing's tentacles managed to slice its way through one of the buildings at the side, grabbing Unit 01 by the foot, and tugging sharply.

Shinji gasped as the burning pain of the energy whip closed around his foot, his fingers tightening spasmodically on the rifle's trigger as he fell sideways, raking fire all down Unit 00's back.

Rei screamed as her EVA's armor managed to dissipate most of the force, however several small bloody holes had been opened along her spine, and the umbilical cable had been completely shredded. Worse yet, the Angel used this moment of distraction to pick up the orange EVA with the tentacle which wasn't holding Shinji, sending her flying across the city and into a hillside.

"No..." Shinji whispered, his mind replaying for him, in every sickening detail, what had just happened to Unit 00. "I just... shot Rei?"

"Shinji" Ranma's sharp voice cut into the Third Child's musings. "Get up, the Angel's headed after Unit 00!"

HR.

"I can't believe you got me to come out here with you," Toji grumbled, as he and Kensuke made their way up the stairs of an old temple on the outskirts of Tokyo 3, the latter panting slightly from the exertion, even though he was actually making Toji have to keep up with him.

"We're almost there," the brown haired boy said, looking over his shoulder for a minute. " I've been scoping this place out as a good spot to watch the EVA battles."

"You actually did research?" Toji groaned. "Why does that not surprise me?" Getting no response from the EVA fanatic, he just shut his mouth until they crested the top of the hill, and were abruptly met by a flying Unit 00.

"Gah!" He yelped, as Rei's EVA smashed into the ground just a few meters in front of him, before turning to Kensuke. "How the hell'd you talk me into this?"

"Appealed to your machoness," the shorter boy said, though he was obviously shaken himself, as the EVA's one hand came down almost around them in order to pick itself back up. A second later, its head looked over, and it froze.

"You... think it sees us?" Kensuke asked, nervously.

"We're gunna die," was all Toji could respond with. "If the EVA or Angel don't kill us, NERV will."

HR.

"I'm going to kill those idiots!" Ranma thundered, as he glared at the screen that was showing the view from one of Rei's cameras, the two students' statistic sheets appearing next to them. The problem was that the Angel was on its way to attack Rei, and Unit 01 was still laying on the ground, Shinji muttering to himself, and he didn't have time to deal with both at once.

Abruptly, as the Angel got into range to send a violent attack towards Rei, and Unit 00's AT field raised to deflect it, he nodded. "Maya, order her to open the plug and let them in."

"We don't know what contamination from external sources will do," the Lieutenant objected.

"Yes we do, or did you forget what Shinji was wearing in the first battle?" Ranma snapped.

"I think she's talking about the mental contamination, but Rei's neural clips should minimize that," Ritsuko cut in. "Do it."

"Yes, Ma'am." Maya confirmed, and Ranma turned back to Shinji.

"Shinji?" he snapped, interrupting the Third Child's muttering about having shot Rei. "Shinji!" Getting no response again, he sighed. "Rei's going to need cover for an extraction. She has civilians that we need to get out of the area, can you hear me?"

"I..." Shinji said, as Maya reported that the two boys were inside of Rei's entry plug.

"You made a mistake, it happens, but if you don't get back up and assist Rei, that's not going to be a simple mistake; it's going to be because you decided saying how much you sucked is more important than saving lives. Do you want that?" Ranma demanded, glaring at the pilot.

"No," Shinji reluctantly admitted, as he looked up, noting that Unit 00 was making its way for one of the recovery elevators, though it had to keep turning around, deflecting the Angel's attacks. "How much more power does Rei have?"

"A minute if she's left alone, about twenty seconds if not," Aoba answered directly.

The Third Child nodded, pulling his EVA to its feet. He yanked his umbilical cable out as he rose, and ran towards the other two combatants, tackling the Angel. When the light whips began lashing at Unit 01's back, he briefly thought that perhaps this course of action wasn't a very intelligent one, but promptly ignored that thought, reaching up with both hands, grasping the Angel's core and pulling.

The Angel stabbed its energy whips through Shinji's back in one last ditch effort to stop him, incidentally injuring itself; however, all this did was cause the Third Child to roar in pain and pull harder. The core came away seconds later in Unit 01's hand, and the EVA fell backwards as the resistance vanished.

"Good work, Shinji, Rei," Ranma's voice echoed in the brown haired boy's ears, as he panted, trying to get his breath back. "If you've got enough battery power remaining, please bring Unit 01 to one of the recovery points... and Ritsuko says to leave the core there. Just be careful when you put it down."

HR.

Within Rei's entry plug, Toji was rather uncomfortable. "Geez, this stuff tastes horrible," he muttered, attempting to spit in spite of the fact that the entire thing was full of LCL. "How do you guys stand it?"

"I dunno," Kensuke returned. "I think I'm in heaven."

"Yeah, you would think that, creepy little hornball," the dark haired boy grumbled, as Rei steadfastly ignored both of them, piloting her EVA into one of the retrieval locks and sighing in relief as umbilical power returned right before her timer hit zero.

END.

A lot of people want to know what happened between Ranma and Misato's incident and the present. Unfortunately, that's not likely to be revealed until Misato actually shows up, which she is going to do... eventually.

OMAKE! OMAKE! WARNING! WARNING! OMAKE!

As the brown haired boy looked on in confusion, the girl in the bath tub turned to him, deliberately tucking her hands under her armpits, and flapping them rapidly. "Wark! Wark! Wark! Wark!" She yelled, loudly, before charging out of the room past him.

"What the hell?" Shinji burst out, turning to stare after her as Rei ran into the living room.

"Damn it," Ritsuko muttered, where she was working on her laptop. "Who gave us the wrong script? If this keeps up and Ranma ends up having to kiss Kaji, I'm not protecting the idiots!"

Omake II: Son of Omake. - And now, the scene you all have been waiting for...

"My name is Toji Suzuhara, you killed my screen time, prepare to die!" Shinji blinked in confusion, as the taller black haired boy said this, before punching him square in the jaw.

"Huh?" He groaned, trying to pick himself up off of the ground.

"Just look at this script!" Toji growled. "Even in Episode 17, I've been replaced by... Ow!" Looking over, he saw that Kensuke had just shoved him out of the way, and was glaring at the Ikari boy himself.

"Shinji Ikari! For taking my place in Unit 01, prepare to die!" Kensuke screamed as he slammed his fist into the Third Child's face.

"Oh god," Shinji moaned, piteously, as a nun walked up, and kicked him in the side. "Why are YOU doing this? Surely this isn't God's work!"

"Tired old movie reference," the nun said, before kicking him again. "And don't call me Shirley."


	4. Chapter Pie: Shinji The Hedgehog

Chapter 3.14159: Shinji The Hedgehog.

"It was his idea!" Toji Suzuhara said, abruptly, as he stood on one side of Rei Ayanami, Kensuke on the other side, still grinning like an idiot. The shorter boy didn't seem to understand exactly how bad of a thing it was for them to be staring down a high ranking NERV official in a tent while still dripping with LCL from the entry plug they weren't supposed to be in

"Right," Ranma said, standing in front of the three with his arms crossed behind his back. "Actually, given Kensuke, it probably was. Still, you two endangered yourselves, the world, and most importantly one of my pilots."

"Um,we're sorry, sir," Toji said, before reaching around Rei's back, smacking Kensuke on the arm.

"Oh, huh? Yeah, we're sorry," the brown haired boy said rapidly, bowing.

Ranma frowned irritably and looked sideways. "Unfortunately, you're not members of NERV, so I can't fire you, and I'm morally against just shooting people for being idiots, 'specially since I got away with a lot of that when I was a kid."

Kensuke gulped, suddenly realizing precisely how serious things were. "Um, we're in trouble, huh?" He asked, and Toji slapped his forehead.

"Mr. Suzuhara, I've seen that put upon expression way too many times not to recognize it, you're free to go," Ranma continued. "Mr. Aida, I'm calling your parents, and entering a juvenile court charge of interfering with a military exercise. You'll probably get a week or so of community service. Now both of you, get out of here."

"Yes, sir." Toji said, grabbing Kensuke and dragging him off. When the strategic operations officer nodded at the tent flap, Rei followed them, and he let off a long sigh, turning to a small plastic chair set up in the corner, where the other EVA pilot sat, staring at his hands.

"Shinji?" The boy didn't respond to the question, so Ranma walked over to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Shinji."

"I shot Ayanami," were the first words the brown hared boy had muttered since he'd been recovered from Unit 01. "I'm sorry."

"Rei's fine," Ranma said, wondering if the pilot was going to start glowing green in a few minutes, given how depressed he sounded. The pigtailed officer had been considering rebuking the boy for his inactivity during a majority of the second half of the battle, but thought better of it when he heard him. "You ended up saving her, those two other kids, and even recovering an intact Angel core for us to study."

"Yes, sir." Shinji said, flatly.

The older man wasn't exactly convinced by that, but also didn't really know what else to say, so he continued on with the debriefing. "About the only thing I could criticize you on was freezing up the way you did after the accident with Rei." He stressed the word accident, though Shinji didn't seem to take any notice. "Freezing in the middle of battle's never a good idea. If you can't think of anything else to do, just start moving, because staying in one place can get you killed."

"I understand, sir." Shinji replied, his eyes never leaving his hands.

Ranma let off a sigh that was an even mixture of irritation, which wasn't aimed at Shinji, and sympathy, which was. "Come on, we should get you home," he said, deciding that he'd ask Ritsuko to talk to the boy as soon as she could, as she was a lot better at dealing with this sort of thing than he was.

HR.

Gendo Ikari frowned, though the expression was hidden behind his hands as he sat, glaring down at the monitor of his desktop computer, which was showing surveillance footage of Dr. Akagi and several engineers gathered around the intact core of the Fourth Angel. "This is unexpected," he muttered. "The damage estimate for the second Angel attack was much higher than this, so at least that should make the old fools happy."

"Yes, but having an intact Super-Solenoid unit this early will vastly accelerate the plans for the mass production models," Fuyutsuki noted, from his usual position behind the commander of NERV's right shoulder.

"We will just have to tell the Americans that they'll have to wait to get the specimen until we verify that there's no sign of recovery," Gendo said.

"From simply the core? that's..." Fuyutsuki started, before being silenced by the younger man's upraised hand. "Ah, yes." He frowned. "Captain Saotome's after action report just arrived. This one is directed to 'The Grand Poobah.'"

Gendo twitched, while his second in command concealed a small smile. "He does get results, I have to admit that," he said, grudgingly. "Though hopefully his exuberance will be cut down slightly when the Second Child and her caretaker arrive."

"Somehow I doubt that will help," the grey haired man observed, though Gendo seemed to be deliberately ignoring him, turning back to his computer to see the core being loaded into the back of a flatbed transport.

HR.

Shinji stared up at his bedroom ceiling as his tape player clicked several times, changing from one side to the other. As it tried to begin playing again, it let out a few more clicks, and his headphones beeped, before falling silent. "Great," he muttered, wondering if he should bother getting up and scrounging for batteries. Realizing that the only alternative was trying to get to sleep without his music to help him avoid thinking about what had happened in the battle today, he grabbed the player and got up, slipping out of his room as quietly as he could.

After five minutes of fruitless searching through the kitchen and living room cupboards, the brown haired boy sat at the dining room table, sighing and flipping the little Walkman around in his hand. "Maybe I should go out and find a place that sells them," he muttered to himself, quietly. Of course, the problem with that plan was that he really didn't know if the stores would be open this late, or if they would be open at all, after the battle today.

Of course, the battle was the one thing he didn't want to think about, but without anyone around, or his music to distract him, he could already almost hear Rei yelling in pain, and Ranma's desperate calls for him to get moving. "The worst thing you can do is freeze in combat," he found himself repeating what the older man had said to him earlier.

Rei knew what she was doing. She had handled her EVA as though she'd had months of practice, and she probably had, while he'd committed an act of friendly fire and then just charged without really thinking about it. "They don't even really need me here." Shaking his head, trying to get those thoughts out of it, he returned to his room to get some clothes.

He had to get some batteries for his player, at least, and he didn't want to wake anyone to ask where they were kept in the house. He'd just walk down to the corner store he'd seen on the way to school every day for the last week... so why was he stuffing his spare clothes in his school bag, removing his homework and tossing it on the little writing desk in the corner of his room? He'd secured the pack on his shoulders before he really thought about it, and that thought was to wonder if he'd forgotten to take his wallet, so he could pay for the batteries.

When he left the house, he still wasn't really sure where he was going, all he was sure about was that he had to go.

HR.

"Hey Shinji, I know it's Saturday, but you really shouldn't be asleep this late," Ranma said, knocking on the Ikari boy's bedroom door. "I've kept breakfast hot about as long as I can." Hearing no response, or even movement from inside, the pigtailed man frowned worriedly, pulling the door open. "Shinji?" He asked, before he noticed that all of the boy's clothes were gone, and the futon was folded neatly in the closet. "Damn," he cursed. "Probably shoulda expected this. Ritsuko!"

"Hmm?" The brown haired woman asked, poking her head in from the living room and wondering if her husband had somehow figured out that she was looking over reports on the Angel's core when she was supposed to be relaxing.

"Shinji's taken off," Ranma said, resigned, and the brown haired woman was suddenly glad that Rei had left earlier to track down one of her friends, as she let out a curse she'd only ever heard before from Misato.

"I'll call section 2," she said, rapidly, closing her computer.

"Those idiots?" Ranma shook his head.

"They aren't idiots," Ritsuko almost rolled her eyes as she dialed a number. It wasn't their fault that they'd had to deal with a super-humanly fast martial artist swiping all of the pizza from their ready room in order to feed the Central Dogma staff. "We need a search and recover on the Third Child," she said, succinctly. "He left the area sometime last night."

As the person on the other end of the line rapidly made radio calls, Ritsuko noted Ranma walking into the living room with his own phone. "Look, I'm sorry we crushed your mailbox, but this is important," he was saying, animatedly. "We were trying to defend the city from Saffron's older, angrier brother, and the guy who did it's missing. No, we didn't lose the... Look, I'm sending a picture of him to your E-mail address, just keep a lookout, okay? Thanks." Hanging up the phone, the pigtailed man frowned darkly.

"That sounded interesting," Ritsuko observed, after the Section 2 agent confirmed that the search was on.

"Yeah, and I have to deal with Ryoga next," Ranma grumbled, beginning to dial another, much longer number.

HR.

"All right, kid, this is the end of the line." Shinji looked up, removing his headphones, as he saw the driver of the train he'd been riding looking down at him, confused. "We've gone around twice, I'm afraid I can't let you stay on any longer."

"Oh, all right," The Ikari boy said, rather lethargically, as he stood and headed for the door.

"Hey kid," the driver said, and Shinji stopped, though he didn't turn around. "Are you all right? You know where you're going?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Shinji returned, the second question noticeably unanswered as he stepped off of the train, looking around the station platform he found himself on. Actually, it did look a little familiar, but then all stations looked a little alike. Shrugging, he started walking, as he didn't have enough money left to purchase a ticket anywhere else, and had apparently decided not to get off at the far end of the Tokyo 2 loop line.

As he heard the clicking of his player switching tracks again, he looked up, just before he fell into what looked like a large pit. "This..." he muttered, suddenly recalling a sort of incredulous embarrassment he'd felt when he had first moved Unit 01's foot, flattening something.

Suddenly it made sense that he thought the area looked somewhat familiar, as the street map in the station had corresponded rather well to the view he'd had from the EVA after that first launch. "So, this is the damage an EVA can do?" he thought, staring at an unrecognizable piece of metal in the middle of the hole. He knew that it had only been made because he'd set Unit 01's foot down very heavily during his first few steps, but really didn't seem to care. Kneeling down, he continued to stare into it, not noticing as it began to rain softly.

HR.

Ranma grimaced as she felt the change overtake her, but she was pretty used to it by now, and didn't let it distract her as she landed on the roof of an apartment building, looking around. So far, she was making about as little progress as the security team Ritsuko had called in. She'd been pretty good at tracking when she was younger, but those senses had been dulled by about ten years of living in 'civilization,' and the fact that it was significantly easier to cover your tracks when you were walking along sidewalks.

Glaring irritatedly at an innocent hotdog vender that was walking along the street beneath her, and resolutely ignoring her growling stomach, the pigtailed redhead picked a random direction and started moving, hoping to emulate the Hibiki style of finding people.

Five minutes later, she still hadn't found anyone, and was actually sort of lost, as the large buildings had given way to small housing developments, and then to fields, with no sign of Shinji as far as her eyes could see. There were some people nearby, running in circles, for some reason. Not knowing what else to do, she decided it wouldn't hurt her to ask them, and she started towards them. She got into range to see distinguishing features, just as one of the two yelled "Mine!" and lept for the other, tackling them to the ground.

Ranma raised an eyebrow, as she jogged up to the two through the field. "Aida, you're really digging a hole here, aren't you?"

"Huh?" The military otaku asked, reaching one hand up to get the infantryman's helmet he was wearing out of his line of sight. "Oh, Captain Saotome, nice to see you," he said, somewhat nervously.

"Are you going to get off of there?" Ranma asked, tapping her foot.

"Huh?" Kensuke blinked, then looked down. He restrained himself from squeezing what he saw there only through the fact that he knew the woman standing behind him carried a sidearm. Quickly and carefully, he rolled off of Rei, allowing her to stand and brush off her clothes, and then came up to a kneeling position. "We were just playing war games, really! I didn't mean anything by it!"

"Your crouch of the wild tiger needs work," Ranma said, completely confusing Kensuke.

"Is that a technique you have not yet taught me?" Rei asked, curiously.

"Believe me, Rei, you shouldn't need it... yet," Ranma noted. "Have either of you seen Shinji?"

"I haven't seen him since yesterday," Kensuke said, too relieved that the NERV officer had changed the subject to think that bringing the events of the day before up wasn't a very good idea.

Fortunately, Ranma was distracted from the military otaku, as her cell phone rang. "Hello?" She asked.

"I think I found your pilot," a rather stressed sounding female voice snapped back, as the sounds of a busy kitchen echoed in the background.

"What? But you sound like you're still in the restaurant," Ranma objected.

"I am," the female voice came back. "He's sitting out front, staring at where our mailbox used to be and looking more depressed than Ryoga that time we told him Akane and I eloped with you as the best man and bridesmaid."

Ranma snickered at that old memory, before nodding. "I'll come over and get him," She said, almost hitting the end call button before the other interrupted her.

"Look, with how bad he looks, maybe you should leave him alone for a while," she said, tentatively. "I don't know what you did to shake the kid up so badly, but..."

"I didn't do anything," Ranma growled back, her eyebrow twitching.

"Well, whatever happened, just leave him here for a while. We'll keep an eye on him and I'll see if I can get him talking. Who knows, maybe my husband'll help, since he seems to be slacking off waiting tables."

"Yeah, all right," Ranma agreed reluctantly. "I'll call off the manhunt, just keep an eye on him."

"Remember how long I tracked you?" The woman said, and the smirk was almost audible.

"Some friends I've got," Ranma grumbled, hanging up the phone and shoving it into one pocket. "You two go back to whatever you were doing. If he starts acting like a Kuno, smack 'im."

"Understood," Rei said, while Kensuke just blinked.

HR.

Shinji jumped, startled, as he heard a voice, and a shadow fell across his body where he sat on the edge of the EVA footprint. "Aren't you kind of cold?"

Looking up, he saw a man with long brown hair tied into a ponytail looking down at him. "Huh?" He mumbled, and then shivered. "I'm fine."

"I can see that," the man nodded. "But maybe you'd like to come into the restaurant over there, for my peace of mind."

"I guess," Shinji said, getting to his feet. The man raised an eyebrow. With most people who were saying they were all right to act tough, they didn't seem nearly as reluctant when given a chance to get out of the rain without losing face.

Shrugging, he lead the boy into a door right behind the EVA print, with the word "Ucchan's" etched into the glass. "So, he finally decided to come in, huh Sugar?" A black haired woman standing behind the grill asked, as she flipped an okonomiyaki onto a plate.

"Yeah, but strictly for my benefit," the man next to Shinji nodded.

The woman smirked, sliding the plate towards an empty seat at the bar-like structure that circled the giant cooking surface that dominated the middle of the room. "Well then, for preserving Kaji-kun's peace of mind, here's an okonomiyaki, on the house."

"Um, that's..." Shinji started, before his stomach growled rather loudly. "That's really nice of you," he finished, walking up to the counter and sitting down.

After he'd gotten half way through his meal, the woman spoke. "So, was there something really interesting about the EVA print outside?"

"Huh?" The Ikari boy asked, startled.

"You spent a lot of time staring at it," the okonomiyaki chef explained. "Or were you just really bored?"

"It's nothing," Shinji said, looking down into what was left of his food.

"Must be a lot of nothing; it's weighing you down a lot," Kaji said, as he reached over the counter to grab a plate in preparation to take it to a table.

"I just got thrown into a new job, and I'm not very good at it," Shinji offered, not entirely sure how much he could tell about being an EVA pilot, or how much he wanted to tell.

"Ah yes, a new employee," Kaji said. "You should have seen how my first few okonomiyaki turned out."

"Yeah," Shinji nodded. "But this job's really important, and I can't afford to mess it up. I didn't even really apply for it, and..."

"That's an understatement," the chef muttered, so low that Shinji barely caught it.

"What?" He asked, confused.

"Nothing," the woman shook her head. "It's not important."

Shinji nodded, finding that it actually felt kind of good to get some of his worries about the EVA off of his chest, even if the people he was talking to didn't know what he was talking about. "I'm not even sure I want to do it, and there are people who can do it better than me, but it's the only reason I'm here."

"Well, if you've only been doing this job for a little while, maybe you should try and keep at it for a bit longer," the chef suggested. Shinji didn't notice a slightly guilty look that came over the woman's face after she said that.

"Yes," Kaji said, passing an empty plate back over the counter. "First impressions may be how most people evaluate others, but sometimes they're misleading. For example, I met my wife when she snuck into my college dorm room with a deadly weapon, ready to slice my roommate's head off."

"Huh?" Shinji asked, blinking.

"Like that," the chef said, throwing an irritated look at the ponytailed man and pointing a finger towards the wall behind her. Hung there, along with a sign that said "In case of Jackass," was the largest spatula the Third Child had ever seen.

"Uh," he said, articulately.

"Now you see why I woulda wanted to run for the hills," Kaji said, smiling.

"I'm not sure it'll get better," Shinji muttered, "But I guess it's something I've got to do."

The chef nodded. "Well, if you want a job with a little less pressure than it sounds like yours has, I'd be glad to get a waiter who's a little more useful than my husband."

"Ucchan, I'm wounded," Kaji said, with an unrepentant smirk.

"I'll, um, think about it," Shinji said, looking between the two nervously.

"Besides," Ucchan said, noticing that the boy seemed to be unsure. "You've got to pay us for the okonomiyaki."

"But, didn't you say that was free?" The younger boy said, confused.

"Oh right, then it'll be for the mailbox," the woman said, smiling brightly.

HR.

"I'm back," Shinji said, looking tentatively into the Saotome-Akagi home's darkened interior.

He was surprised when he heard a single voice call "Welcome home," assuming that everyone was gone, for some reason. Stepping inside, he saw Rei sitting at the dining table, reading a book with a dolphin on the cover.

"Um, where's everyone else?" The brown haired boy asked.

"Commander Ikari wished to speak to Dr. Akagi and Ranma-san about your disappearance, I believe." The blue haired girl responded.

"Oh," Shinji said, the reminder of his father suddenly making him want to turn around and start running again, at least for a moment.

"Why did you leave?" Rei asked, after several moments of silence.

"It's not important," Shinji said, and for the first time since the Angel battle, he actually almost believed it. "Besides, I've got to stay... to pay off my debts."

"I see," Rei replied. "I hope that your debts are large."

"Um, okay..." Shinji said, uncertainly.

END.

Note: Tokyo 3 uses the North American school schedule. Why? Because it makes our lives easier.

Note: Weebee would like everyone to know that he is not, nor has he ever been, chairman Keel.

OMAKE! OMAKE! WARNING! WARNING! OMAKE!

Shinji looked up as he heard a voice, and a shadow fell across his body where he sat on the edge of the EVA footprint. "Aren't you kind of cold?"

Blinking rain water out of his eyes, he saw a man with long brown hair tied into a ponytail looking down at him. "Huh?" He mumbled, and then shivered. "I'm fine."

"I can see that," the man nodded. "But maybe you'd like to come into the restaurant over there, for my peace of mind."

"But Kaji..." Shinji said, nervously. "I'm a boy."

The title in the chapter select was intentional.


	5. Chapter 4: Shinji:Secret of Blue Water

Chapter Fore: Shinji:The Secret of Blue Water.

"So... what do you think?" Ranma asked, as Ritsuko stepped out of the hallway, having just come from Shinji's bedroom.

"I think that if it weren't for the security hole it would represent, I'd have that boy in a psychologist's office within the hour," NERV's chief scientist replied, slumping down on the couch across from where the pigtailed man was reading a report.

"Well, that's true of about half of us, isn't it?" he responded, trying to conceal genuine worry with humor. "I wouldn't be surprised if the U.N. locks the entirety of NERV in a giant rubber room after the Angels are destroyed."

Ritsuko nodded. "Fortunately," she said, her face twisting in disgust as she said it, "his issues shouldn't stop him from piloting the EVA, so Commander Ikari will be happy. Also, he's apparently picked up a part time job at an okonomiyaki restaurant."

Ranma dropped the report he was reading to the floor, and blinked at his wife. "He what?" he asked, flatly.

Ritsuko held up a work permission form that Shinji had given her, apparently given to him by 'Ukyo Ryoji.'

"Does he want to do it?" Ranma asked, wondering precisely what his oldest friend was thinking.

"All he told me was that he wanted to know what he was supposed to do with the form," the brunette said, shrugging and laying said item on the coffee table. "You know, if we let him security's going to have our heads."

"They already don't like us letting Rei go on those hikes with Kensuke," Ranma shrugged. "A little more exercise won't hurt them."

Ritsuko chuckled. "Well then, I'll see that the school gets this filed. It'll probably do him good to do something he's decided on, and Ucchan's is close to one of the Geofront's emergency elevators."

"Yeah, so now all I've gotta do is explain how it's not endangering the pilot to the commander," Ranma said, wincing at the, rather deserved, dressing down he'd gotten earlier in the day.

"I'll handle that one," Ritsuko said, nodding. "This action is necessary to maintain the pilot's mental health at a level optimal for piloting an EVA."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking.

"Exactly," Ritsuko said, with a smirk.

HR.

Shinji frowned down at the math paper before him, trying to ignore the world around him as he struggled through the extra homework the teacher had decided to give him, 'in order to keep caught up while you're piloting the EVA.' Secretly, the Ikari boy believed that the older man was just angry that the Angel attack had interrupted his class, but didn't really feel like arguing.

He put his pencil to paper to begin writing down an answer, when a particularly loud exclamation from the class representative to the boy sitting behind him caused him to press too hard, snapping the lead.

"I can't believe you were so stupid as to follow that idiot Aida into the middle of a war zone!" the pigtailed brunette was yelling, as Toji Suzuhara flinched back in his chair.

"Um, Hikari-chan, it's..." the boy started to stutter, raising one hand.

"Don't 'Hikari-chan' me, you knuckleheaded idiot!" the class rep interrupted. "You could have been killed, and then who would eat all the extra lunch I make?"

"Um, what?" Toji asked, his cringing suddenly stopping in complete confusion.

"Here!" Hikari said, whipping a bento from behind her back and setting it down on his desk. "Jerk."

"I'll never understand girls," the large boy complained, as Shinji dug a pencil sharpener from his backpack. "How about you, Ikari, you live with Ayanami. Do you have any idea what they think?"

"What?" Shinji asked, startled. "I don't know. Ayanami's..." He stopped himself from saying that he was pretty sure she wasn't the best example of 'normal' female behavior, continuing with "She's pretty quiet most of the time."

"Huh, well you're no help," the black haired boy complained, before beginning on his lunch.

HR.

"Okay, Shinji, Rei, are you ready?" The Third Child nodded, as he and Unit 01 stood on a hill in one of the more open areas of the Geofront, Unit 00 standing across from him.

"Remember, the mockup's buildings are even more breakable than those in the city, and any damage will be counted against you. Work as a team, since you will be attacked from multiple angles," Ranma said, and a countdown timer appeared in both EVAs' cockpits. As it hit zero, the units leapt into action, turning away from each other and beginning to dash down the hill, into a small mockup of a few city streets.

Shinji threw up his AT Field as what looked like a red painted Unit 01 drifted out from behind a building, and Maya's voice announced "Miss."

Unit 00 came up from behind Shinji, and he let down his AT field just as Rei pulled the trigger on the modified pallet rifle she was carrying, low intensity laser light flashing out to hit a sensor on the enemy EVA's chest. "That's a hit, Pilots have scored one point."

"Let's make things a little harder," Aoba's voice came through, and the enemy EVA came back to life. Shinji sighted to destroy it, but Rei turned, using one leg as a pivot, and fired behind the two of them.

"Please be aware of your blind spot, Ikari-kun," the blue haired girl's voice rebuked.

"Oh, right," Shinji mumbled, as a third EVA decoy floated up from behind one of the buildings above them, simulating leaping onto it. He brought his AT field up in time to stop the lasers that raked across both units, but a second enemy popped out from a nearby alley. "Maybe walking into the middle of the city wasn't a good idea," he grumbled.

"Indeed, perhaps we should find a clearer area to defend," Rei nodded, and both Evangelions began to move, delivering suppressive fire back towards their enemies as they made their way to a clearer area, where they weren't likely to bump into a building if they turned too quickly.

"Three misses, and another point for the Pilots," Maya announced, as the last decoy drifted away, its laser sensor registering a clean hit.

"Right, it looks like we're clear," Shinji said, sighing in relief, as Unit 01's AT field began to flicker down, his head starting to ache from the effort of keeping it up.

"Captain Saotome, is the exercise completed?" Rei asked, unable to see anything herself, either, save what looked like a few maintenance crews working to erect another building in the mockup.

"This'll probably answer that question," Ranma said, as Maya cut in.

"Unit 00, hit. Armor plating pierced, entry plug destroyed. Unit 01, hit. Armor plating pierced, entry plug destroyed." She said, clearly.

"What?" Shinji yelled. "But I can't see anything!"

"Look at the base of building 5-F and the roof of building 14-C," Aoba said in response. "And Makoto, you owe me two thousand yen."

Shinji ignored Hyuga's groan of protest, zooming his camera in on one of the indicated buildings, and noting several people who looked like NERV security, lugging something bulky and backpack mounted. "What? But that wasn't an Angel..." he protested, confused.

"Shinji," Ranma returned. "We have no idea what form an Angel will take, or what abilities it will show up with. In EVA combat, the essence of any strategy should be that you don't take anything for granted."

"Understood," the Ikari boy grumbled, a little irritated, along with Rei's more neutral acceptance.

HR.

"So, what do you think?" Ranma asked, turning to look up at Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki, who had come to watch the combat exercise in place of Gendo.

"I see the Third Child has finally begun to move with confidence in engagements with the First," the grey haired man nodded. "Though I have to ask, I believe I had to process at least seven notes from you stating that rifle training for the EVA pilots would be a complete waste of time, why are you doing it willingly now?"

Ranma looked a little sheepish. "Lieutenant Ibuki explained to me precisely how much money EVA level blade sparring equipment would cost us in the long run."

"The presentation had pie graphs," Hyuga cut in, causing the female computer tech to bury her face in her readings, embarrassed.

"So I figured that small unit tactics training would do just as well for the children's coordination in their EVAs and with each other," Ranma said, saving his subordinate from any more attention.

"I see," Fuyutsuki nodded. It was quite strange, how NERV's central control element worked. While at most times they were so casual as to have had one U.N. delegate write a very strongly worded 'suggestion' about replacing them all, in combat or emergency situations, they tended to be one of the most efficient teams he'd ever seen, so he'd politely told that delegate to go jump off a cliff. "I will inform the commander of your progress."

"Did you have to mention the charts?" Ranma grumbled, as the older man turned and left the room.

HR.

"Well, here I am," Shinji said quietly, as he stared through the glass door of Ucchan's, noting that the place was starting to fill up with the after school crowd. It had taken a bit over a week, but the paperwork had finally been processed, having something to do with NERV security, and he was now allowed to have an after school job.

Swinging the door open and stepping in, he saw Mrs. Ryoji at the grill waving at him. "So, you're all ready to start, huh Sugar?" she asked, smiling. "There's some stuff in the back room that you can use to keep your school uniform clean."

"Yes, Ma'am," Shinji said, nodding to the black haired woman before walking through a curtained off door near the grill. Beyond, he found a hall with a set of stairs on one side, the entrance to the restaurant's bathroom to the other, and a large storage area just ahead. He quickly found the clothing the woman had been talking about tucked away on a rail near the back of the room, and frowned at it.

"You've got to be kidding me," he mumbled, plucking at a piece of red fabric before sighing and beginning to take off his shirt.

HR.

"Where is that boy?" Ukyo asked, ten minutes after Shinji had left. She hoped that he wouldn't be this slow when delivering orders, or she would have to fire him despite all the effort NERV had gone to in order to keep her from noticing their surveillance equipment.

"Shinji?" Kaji asked, dropping a pad full of orders on the counter.

Ukyo looked at the pad for a moment, wincing as she saw the top order. Some yahoo had apparently asked for an "Angel meat" okonomiyaki and though she prided herself on her wide variety of ingredients, even she hadn't been brave enough to breach NERV's cordon around the last Angel... though she'd thought about it. "Yeah, I sent him to get an apron a few minutes ago," she said, responding to Kaji's question.

"Ah, that could be it," he said, nodding. "All of them were dirty this morning so I tossed them into the wash."

"Then the poor kid's probably tearing apart the storage room looking for one," Ukyo groaned. "Take what's done and watch the grill, I'll go help him."

"Yes Ma'am!" Kaji said, performing a sloppy and offhand salute, before his wife rolled her eyes at him and tossed him her spatula.

Hanging her own apron on a hook behind the grill, the okonomiyaki chef headed into the back, stopping in her tracks as soon as she got past the drape that covered the door. "Um, Shinji?" she asked, nervously.

"Yes, Ma'am?" the figure before her, what appeared to be a rather boyish looking girl in a red and white flowered simple kimono, asked nervously.

"Um, nothing..." Ukyo finally decided, wondering why Ranma hadn't warned her of his pilot's penchant for cross-dressing. "You look nice," she finally decided to say, not wanting to upset the... pilot who was responsible for protecting the city. "How about you come out and get started now?"

Shinji nodded, concealing his frown until the older woman had turned to leave. Apparently Mrs. Ryoji intended him to dress as he was to do the job, and it wasn't just some prank. Still, he had agreed to it, and it was still better than a plug suit.

HR.

Why was he doing this? This was the first question that entered Ryoga Hibiki's mind, as he slogged his way through the swamps of what he was relatively sure was Cambodia, very thankful for his well waterproofed boots. He'd been relatively happy, at home with his wife and their son, practicing her family's art, before Ranma had called up saying he'd lost some giant robot pilot that had something to do with Second Impact.

Of course, Ranma had just asked if he'd seen the boy, it had been Ryoga's idiotic idea to actually go looking for him, and now he was really starting to regret it, as the swamp gave way to a street he didn't recognize, though the signs gave him hope, as they were written in Japanese.

Randomly stopping a middle-aged man in a grey suit, he asked, "Excuse me, but where am I and how do I get to Tokyo-3?"

"Tokyo-3?" the old man asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why, that's half way across the country and on a whole different island. You're lost."

"Yeah, I know," Ryoga grumbled sourly. "So do you know how to get there?"

"Well, your best bet would be to take the ferry to Honshu, then catch a train over," the man said, helpfully.

"Um, ferry, right," Ryoga said, turning and starting to walk, before the older man grabbed one shoulder.

"You're headed inland," he said, confused.

"Oh, I am?" Ryoga asked, before shaking his head. "Right, I am..."

"How about I take you to the ferry terminal?" the older man offered, pulling Ryoga by the shoulder. The bandanna clad martial artist nodded, following, before he remembered something.

"I don't suppose you've seen this boy?" he asked, holding up a picture he'd printed out before leaving home.

"Shinji?" the old man asked, his eyebrow raising. "He left for the same place you're going, about three weeks ago. Why, is there something wrong?"

"Oh," Ryoga said, his hopes having risen slightly when the old man recognized the photo, only to have crashed down again when he said that he hadn't seen the boy for weeks. He pondered mentioning that the kid had gone missing, but thought it was a rather bad idea to worry someone who knew him if he hadn't been told yet.

"That jerk Ranma, not telling anyone," he muttered, earning a strange look. "Um, Nothing."

"I hope he's doing well in Tokyo-3," the older man said, as he and Ryoga turned down a street. "He never really did have much confidence, I wonder how he's doing now?"

HR.

"Thanks, miss," a customer said, as Shinji set a plate full of okonomiyaki down in front of him.

The Third Child smiled, bowing slightly before turning back to the counter. 'I can't believe I'm getting used to this,' he thought, actually kind of freaked out. He'd been working at Ucchan's for about a week now, and other than the apparent cross-dressing uniform, an assumption that was re-enforced on the second day of his employment when he found a variety of different colours and patterns of women's kimono along with the flower headpiece in his corner of the storage room, things were going well.

It brightened his day when he showed up with a plate of food and a patron smiled at him for it, sometimes even tipping. It gave him a definite feeling of accomplishment, without the mind-numbing fear or pain that the last two Angel battles had invoked.

Returning to Ukyo for the next order, the young Ikari was distracted right before he opened his mouth, as his phone rang from the folds of his blue and white kimono. Since Ukyo knew why he carried the phone, she didn't interrupt as he pushed the talk button and said "Hello?"

"Shinji, this is Central Dogma. We've detected an Angel approaching the city. Are you currently at work?" A clipped male voice asked.

Shinji gulped. "Um, yes, I'm at work, should I go to the access lift?"

"We've sent an express car up for you. Please hurry." The male voice said, before the phone clicked off.

"Sorry Mrs. Ryoji, I've got to go to NERV," Shinji said, putting his phone away.

Ukyo's face immediately went pale, and she missed her usual admonishment to call her Ukyo or Ucchan as she shakily nodded. "Got it, Sugar. Good luck, all right?"

"Yeah," Shinji said, nodding and heading for the door. "Thanks."

HR.

As the elevator car, which had moved at what felt like a similar speed to the EVA catapult, slid to a stop and its doors opened, Shinji staggered out of it, looking slightly green. "Why does everything at NERV have to try and make me sick?" he grumbled quietly.

His head turned up as he heard a startled voice call "Shinji?" and saw Ranma and Ritsuko standing in front of him, the latter looking at him, surprised.

"Why are you wearing that?" Ranma asked, much less startled looking but also rather curious.

"It's the uniform for the waiters at Ucchan's, I think," the Third Child said.

Ranma looked like he wanted to say something, but bit back the comment. "Okay," he said slowly, resolving to have a talk with Ukyo later. "We need to get you out of that and into Unit 01, and quickly. The Angel's already made it into the city."

"Right," Shinji said, following the two adults as they turned away and started moving.

"Again, this Angel's capabilities are unknown, but judging from a distortion field we've been picking up, either its AT field is constantly shaped into a defensive barrier that completely surrounds it, or it's so incredibly strong that it's just visible regardless," Ritsuko said, as the three rode down an escalator which lead towards the EVA cages and changing rooms.

As they reached the hallway, Rei exited the changing room in her plugsuit, and her eyes locked with Shinji's. Walking up to him, she studied him intently. "Perhaps the water wasn't cold enough?" she asked, curiously. "Or perhaps it is warm water? Experimentation will be required."

"Um, that's fine," Ranma said, just slightly creeped out, and resigning himself to watch out for Rei and glasses of water for the next week or so. "But not right now, we've got an Angel to deal with. Rei, report to Unit 00. Shinji and Unit 01 will be ready to launch soon."

"Yes, sir." Rei said, turning and walking down the hall.

As Shinji entered the changing room that Rei had just vacated, and was out of earshot, Ritsuko turned to her husband. "I blame you for this," she said, flatly.

HR.

"...ling you, I had nothing to do with it," the Central Dogma techs heard the tail end of what had clearly been some form of argument between the Saotome-Akagi couple as they entered the room, but decided that they weren't going to ask. It was safer that way.

"Shinji is secure in Unit 01, captain," Maya reported.

"Both Evangelions ready to launch on your command," Hyuga chipped in. "Locations selected on either side of the Angel."

"Good," Ranma said, nodding. "Where's the Modern Major General today?"

"Right here," Gendo said irritably, walking in and taking his seat, before leveling a glare at the pigtailed Strategic Operations Officer's back that he didn't seem to notice.

"Ah," Ranma said, looking over the deployment points Hyuga had selected. "Any other information on the Angel since we left?"

"It's extended some sort of drill bit and is beginning to excavate a hole at point F-12, sir," Aoba reported, as the main screen showed an image of a large blue octahedron with something extending from its base floating over the city.

"Well, we can't let it keep doing that," Ranma grumbled. "Launch the EVAs."

No words were spoken in response to the order, as they didn't need to be. The ground seemed to shake from the shock of two catapults firing at once, and when they slammed home at the top of the rails, even Shinji responded quickly, both AT fields unfurling between the EVAs and the Angel.

"High energy reaction building in the target," Ritsuko reported, from a station she'd taken behind Maya's.

"What would that..." Ranma began asking, before a beam of energy exploded from two of the Angel's corners, smashing into the EVAs' AT fields. "Damn," he cursed, trying to figure out what to do as the pilots let out groans of exertion, keeping their AT Fields intact. From the sound of things, Neither EVA was likely to be able to move while it was being assaulted, which cut his list of options down severely. "Begin firing city def..." he started, before Ritsuko's voice cut through his order.

"Unit 01's AT field is losing integrity!" she yelled, as the orange octagonal force field seemed to begin cracking, almost like a pane of glass.

"Retract the Evangelions!" Ranma ordered, frowning darkly. The order was in the middle of being followed, when Shinji's AT field collapsed, and the Angel's energy beam smashed into Unit 01's upper body, eliciting a tortured scream from the pilot.

END.

All chapter titles are intentional, especially those that are not.


	6. Chapter 35: EVA Roasting

Chapter Three! Five sir. Ah, Chapter Five!: EVA Roasting On An Open Fire.

The scariest thing about this launch, Shinji decided as he clutched the two handles in Unit 01's cockpit, was that it wasn't really scaring him anymore. The EVA had been launched through the catapult twice before by this point, and he was actually almost prepared when it slammed to a shuddering halt at the top of the rail, the restraints and the LCL keeping his body from trying to go on without it.

Seeing the Angel in front of him, he immediately raised an AT field, recalling the embarrassing incident with the security guards a week earlier. This turned out to be a very good thing, as a blindingly white beam sped towards him almost before the field could finish forming. The impact felt like someone had just punched him specifically in the brain, and he struggled to maintain the field, in spite of the fact that Unit 01 was shaking violently, and the light before him had spread out into a blinding sheet.

He heard a few quickly yelled orders from Central Dogma, before he felt the EVA beginning to drop. He sighed in relief as he realized that they were retracting him, which turned out to be a rather bad idea, as the relaxation caused him to lose the focus necessary to maintain his already weakening shield. As a line of burning pain etched its way up his chest and across his face, he screamed in pain, his last thought before he passed out being that he really shouldn't have thought he was getting used to this.

HR.

Shinji awoke once more to a sight of red eyes, disconcertingly close to his face. This time, he didn't try to leap away, though a good portion of the reasoning for that was the fact that his head felt like it was going to explode. "Rei?" he croaked, tiredly.

"I am glad you are awake," the First Child said, backing away from him and letting him see a cart full of food that she had apparently brought with her. Looking up to a clock that was hung on the opposite wall of the same hospital room he'd been in when he first piloted Unit 01, he saw that two hours had passed since he'd left Ucchan's.

"You should eat quickly, we are likely to be deployed against the Angel again some time soon," Rei said, offering him a plate with some bread and vegetables on it.

"Going out again?" Shinji asked, the phantom pain of the Angel's attack suddenly running over his upper body as he thought about that prospect. "I think I'd rather just pretend I didn't wake up," he muttered, glumly.

"Unfortunately, that isn't an option," Rei returned. "There are cameras in this room, and I would have to report that you had woken up."

"Yeah, didn't think that would work," Shinji said, taking the food Rei had offered and staring up to the ceiling for a while. "Why does it have to be us, Rei?"

"Because the Evangelions must be piloted by people who were born after Second Impact," Rei replied, succinctly.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Shinji admitted, thinking that perhaps he should have been listening a little more closely during some of Ritsuko's lectures on operating the EVA. "Still, I understand why you do it, you were trained for it, but for me, it's like Father just wanted to find another way to screw up my life."

Rei frowned for a moment. "Despite what Captain Saotome states, I must believe that Commander Ikari has a reason for the things he does." Shinji noticed the change of address regarding Ranma, but decided not to comment on it, as Rei continued, "We have been the ones chosen to pilot, and that is what we will have to do."

"Yeah, I guess," Shinji replied, though it sounded almost like Rei was trying to convince herself of something as much as him.

"Ranma-san has asked us to report to ready room 3 and 'keep ourselves occupied' as soon as you feel well enough to move," the blue haired girl said. "Do you?"

Shinji nodded, noting that his head felt less like it was going to explode, and began to eat, while Rei produced a set of his school clothes from a tray underneath the cart she'd been pushing, which Shinji saw was right next to his and her neatly wrapped plugsuits.

"Here we go again," he muttered, a little too quietly for the girl nearby to hear, as he put the now clean plate back onto the cart and sat up in the bed. "Um, Rei?" he asked, as he noted that she was just sitting there, next to the bed. "Could you..." He pointed to the door, and then held up his clothes.

She simply nodded, standing and exiting the room.

HR.

"Okay, what have we learned so far?" Ranma asked, frowning at the screen that displayed the fifth Angel, its almost taunting seeming song having been muted a few minutes ago.

"It appears to have a particle beam weapon powered directly by the core, and a charge-up time of around 2.6 seconds," Hyuga reported. "The beam's power is split if we give it two equally important targets to focus on, but the targeting time remains the same, so we're pretty sure it can lock a new target instantly out to its maximum targeting range, displayed here." Abruptly, the screen's image was replaced with a map of the city and surrounding areas, a large circle drawn around most of the visible area.

"I'm guessing that's a dome," the pigtailed operations officer grumbled, sourly, receiving a nod from Maya.

"A reconnaissance aircraft we flew over it half an hour ago was completely destroyed," she reported.

"How the hell's it charging the beam that fast?" Ranma grumbled, sort of wishing he could let off a full power Moko-Takabisha with that little lead time.

"It's using its crystalline structure and AT field to create a massive particle accelerator ring around its center of mass, and then opening gaps where it wants to fire," Ritsuko explained.

"Huh," the pigtailed man muttered, taking a few seconds to translate the basic concept out of Scientist. It had been a very hard language for him to learn, but rather necessary when being around Ritsuko. His eyes widened as the translation finished, turning technobabble into some weird martial arts example, probably involving Ryoga. "Maya, get three probes up, and program them so they enter the field of fire at the same time, two on a horizontal plane but at ninety degrees to each other and one from directly above."

"Going to throw more rocks at it until it gets annoyed and blows us all up, sir?" Aoba asked, confused.

"Pretty much," Ranma replied, offhand. The room waited in silence for the next few minutes, only occasionally broken up as the three techs fed orders to launch crews. Ranma knew that his orders had been carried out when the diamond on the screen exploded into action, two beams lashing out to destroy the fast moving objects that were coming in from across the city. Two seconds later, a third beam shot from the diamond's top vertex, blowing the third probe out of the air. The silence of the room remained, though the techs and Ritsuko could practically feel a burst of confidence from Ranma.

It took the brown haired scientist a few moments to figure out what he had been thinking, but she nodded. "It needs to establish a new particle ring before it can hit something on the third axis," she said, suddenly.

Ranma nodded. "So, what's the biggest gun we've got?" he asked, casually.

HR.

"How do the MAGI rate this plan of yours?" Gendo Ikari asked, as Ranma stood in front of him in his cavernous office, a report in his hand.

"All three confirm that the plan is capable of working, and give a roughly eight percent chance for success," the younger man reported. "They have noted that most of the city defenses will be obliterated, however."

Gendo reached one hand up to rub at his glasses. "Captain Saotome, do you have some sort of vendetta against our fixed defensive emplacements?" he asked, flatly.

"I use what I have, sir." Ranma replied.

Gendo nodded. "As do I," he said, looking over the reports on his desk. "Unit 01 has been designated as the attack element for this plan, why is that?"

"The test type's got a lot more heavy armor than Unit 00," Ranma replied. "If anything goes wrong, Unit 01 has a higher chance of survival."

"The chance either way isn't terribly high," the commander objected. "Unit 00 will be the attack element while Unit 01 assists in the distraction."

"But sir..." Ranma started, before being cut off.

"That is how it is going to be done, understood, Captain?" NERV's commander ordered, leaning forward to hide his expression behind his crossed hands.

"Understood," Ranma said, reluctantly, before turning to leave the room. For a moment, he let himself think that Gendo's obvious unwillingness to put Shinji into danger might actually be a good sign, before reality reasserted itself.

The older man had never been one to let emotion get in the way of running NERV as ruthlessly and efficiently as he possibly could, which was probably why Ranma himself hadn't started having to dodge death squads by this point. No matter how much the strategic operations officer happened to dislike their Fearless Leader, he had to admit that Gendo always had a reason.

Now all he had to do was figure out why Unit 01, or less likely Shinji, was so damned important.

HR.

"D-8," Rei said calmly, as she and Shinji sat at a desk near the corner of the briefing room they'd been ordered to wait in, looking into a computer terminal.

The screen in front of them beeped, and a graphic of a flaming ship sinking into the water could be seen. "Pilots Win," was printed below the image, the font tinted red, almost as though the computer system was frustrated.

"That's two games to three," Shinji noted, slightly bored, but not knowing of much else to do, as he hadn't brought any books, and Rei had been reluctant to speak of anything of importance since the conversation in the hospital.

At this point, the Third Child was almost hoping for Ranma to show up and tell him that Unit 01 was expected to charge screaming at the Angel with nothing but a normal sized butter knife. As the door to the room swung open, and a rather hesitant looking Ranma walked in followed by Ritsuko and several technicians, he wanted to smack himself for even having thought that.

Rei quickly shut down the MAGI terminal as Ritsuko walked up to them, holding her laptop. "Have you discovered a plan of attack?" the blue haired girl asked, curiously.

"Sort of," Ritsuko replied. Ranma's plan had been explained to her, but it sounded absolutely insane. Still, she was rather used to absolutely insane plans coming from that direction, and they had a disconcerting tendency to work.

"All right," Ranma said, as the pilots and techs took their seats, a screen at one end of the room lighting up and displaying some test footage taken of the Angel shooting various things out of the sky. "We've carefully measured the Angel's firing arcs, and formulated an operation designed to take advantage of a weakness in them. Since the Angel can only quickly fire on two axises at once, we will have one of the Evangelions, Unit 01, as well as the city defenses distract the Angel."

Shinji gulped as he heard that he was going to be made a target. He recalled how the Angel's beam had felt before, and really wasn't prepared to repeat the experience. The next part of the plan, however, made him rather grateful for his new position.

"Unit 00," Ranma said, throwing a rather hard to read look at Rei, "Will climb through the maintenance tunnels in the armor plating covering the top portion of the Geofront, before exiting using one of the catapult hatches approximately fifty meters from the Angel's base. Then, it will neutralize its AT field while it's firing on the other targets, and destroy it with an experimental gauss rifle we've been working on."

As the screen showed various computer simulations of the battle's likely outcome, the pigtailed man asked, "So, does anyone have any questions?"

"Do we know if this Angel is as explosive as the third?" Rei asked, and Shinji noted that she looked somewhat nervous.

"We're not sure," Dr. Akagi admitted.

"Then it was probably a wise decision that pilot Ikari is going to be part of the distraction team," the blue haired girl said, with an unreadable expression, before standing and leaving the room.

Ranma winced, and Ritsuko moved as well, following the girl as the rest of the people tried their best to ignore what was going on. "What is the time frame for us to get set up?" Aoba asked, deciding that changing the subject would be a good idea.

"The EVAs are ready whenever we can get the rest of the components together, so I'd suggest you guys get me some estimates, then I can tell you," Ranma replied.

"Yes, sir," the Central Dogma techs said, before leaving along with Ranma.

Shinji looked around, realizing that he was the last one in the room, and left as well, starting towards the EVA cages. As he was about to turn a corner, he heard voices, and stopped, not wanting to interrupt a conversation.

"...was selected because I can be replaced," a quiet voice that he recognized as Rei Ayanami's spoke, and he was suddenly very glad that he hadn't interrupted.

"Rei..." Ritsuko's voice came back. "There's danger in every launch of the Evangelions. Your training with Unit 00 was thought to be better suited for this part of the mission."

"Unit 01 has combat armor, a higher battery life, and the Third Child has better synchronization than I do," Rei said, flatly.

Ritsuko sighed. "Yes, it does," she admitted. "Rei, I'm sorry, but these are the orders we've been given."

"I understand," Rei nodded. "Doctor, I am very apprehensive about the outcome of this mission."

"It's all right to be scared, Rei," Ritsuko said, gently. "We'll do our best to make sure you get out, I promise."

"Thank you, Ma'am." Shinji winced as he heard footsteps approaching. He was half way through trying to figure out what to do when Ritsuko rounded the corner, noticing him almost immediately.

"Um, Doctor, I, um, I was going to change into my plugsuit, and..." the brown haired boy stuttered, nervously.

"Of course," Ritsuko said, nodding. "Carry on."

Shinji nodded, walking past her quickly, and only catching a small amount of a muttered comment about 'Nabiki,' whoever that was. As he made his way towards the change room, however, the Ikari Boy couldn't help dwelling on what Rei had said. 'She could be replaced?' he thought, and shook his head. He really didn't like the sound of that.

HR.

"That's big," Ukyo Kuonji muttered as she and her husband left Ucchan's, on their way to the shelter down the street. Kaji looked up to where his wife was staring, almost dropping the portable grill components he was carrying. There, crouching on the hillside overlooking the small suburb of Tokyo-3 where the restaurant was located, was a giant purple and green robot, holding a giant rifle with a drum magazine in one hand and what looked like a kite shield built for something even larger than it was in the other.

"I'm suddenly very glad I didn't tease him about the clothes," the brown haired man muttered, somewhat in awe of the sight of the Evangelion in person, rather than on a TV Screen.

"Is that Shinji-kun's?" Ukyo asked, curiously.

"I think so," Kaji replied. Seeing a gleam in his wife's eye he didn't like, he grabbed her shoulder. "We're not going to go up and say hi to him."

"Wonder if something that big could help me make the world's biggest okonomiyaki?" Ukyo pondered as she ran a hand down the shaft of her giant spatula, causing her husband to almost face-fault. Sometimes the black hared woman's obsession with her favorite food worried him more than others.

HR.

"All right Shinji, Unit 01's all hooked up, and that extension for the pallet rifle's magazine should let you hold down the trigger for a couple of minutes at a stretch." Hyuga's voice came through Unit 01's comm. system, as Shinji turned his head for a moment, noticing something gleaming in the city below. He wasn't able to track it down, so he returned his attention to the Angel which was floating ominously nearby, gulping.

"I'm ready," he said, receiving a confirmation from Central Dogma a moment later, and listening as Maya's voice could be heard tracking Rei's progress through the catapult tunnels. Unfortunately, due to the drill blocking all routes to the hatch they wanted to use, they couldn't just launch her. "Pilot Ayanami is in position," Maya finally reported.

A moment later, Ranma yelled "Begin operation, now!" Shinji sprang to his feet, sighting with his weapon and pulling the trigger. He briefly felt satisfaction as he saw several bullets ripple off of the Angel's AT field, but was far too busy for that a moment later, when beams of light sprang out towards him, as well as two artillery emplacements within the city.

Shinji winced as the shield in his left hand bucked at the impact, and watched the display in the top right hand corner of his view that detailed the shield's integrity carefully. When the energy bolt finally ran out of power, his shield was burned almost all the way through, but he could hear them talking about Rei climbing onto the street. Dropping it, he raised his gun again, firing at the Angel. It apparently built a charge much more quickly the second time it fired along the same trajectory, as within a few seconds of his renewed attack, another bolt flew towards him, and realizing that the shield wouldn't take the impact, he threw it away and dove for cover behind a large hill nearby.

Unfortunately, he apparently hadn't moved quickly enough, as he felt a burning pain run along his right arm before he could completely reach cover, and a loud explosion echoed in his ears. Looking down as he heard something about cutting off nerve links, he saw that his rifle was gone, and Unit 01's right hand had been badly mangled, though he couldn't feel it after the first shot of pain, for some reason.

Thinking that he was probably in shock, Shinji listened to the frantic voices shooting back and forth in Central Dogma. "Sir, the Angel is realigning its accelerator, it's targeting Unit 00!"

"Damn it, Rei, pull back!" Ranma yelled, before there was another loud bang, this one farther away, and the sky above Unit 01 lit up with a bright, almost blinding light.

HR.

"What just happened?" Ranma demanded, glaring into the screen at the front of Central Dogma, which was only now fading from a bright display of light.

"Unit 00 fired its cannon, and then something exploded," Hyuga said, unsure, as Aoba switched the camera view to something a little farther away than the one that had been just behind the prototype Evangelion.

The entire room went silent as they saw the damage that had been caused. About a solid city block where the Angel had been was just gone, and floating there now was a spiky ball of shattered blue crystal, the red of a core peaking through in various locations. "What the hell?" Ranma finally breathed, stunned.

"Unit 00's shot," Ritsuko said, surprised. "It must have hit in the same place where the Angel was building up energy to attack Rei. It ruined the focusing effect of the crystal, so the energy that was gathered was unleashed in every direction, with no control."

"So it backfired," Aoba muttered, quietly.

"Captain, the Angel is still showing signs of life, it's trying to regenerate!" Maya cut in, as Ranma was about to ask the status of Unit 00.

"Damn it," the pigtailed operations officer cursed. "Shinji?"

"Y... yeah?" the third Child's rather shaky voice came over the speakers. "What's happening?"

"We don't have time right now, get up and head towards the Angel. It shouldn't be able to fire on you, and its core is exposed." Turning towards Ritsuko, Ranma asked quietly, "It can't fire, right?"

"It certainly won't be able to build up nearly as much power," The woman shrugged. "There can't be enough non-fractured crystal left to focus more than one of our target designation lasers."

Ranma sighed in relief, glad his penchant for acting without thinking had born good results rather than disastrous ones this time, as he saw Unit 01 charging across the city. About half way to his destination, the Angel let off a blast of energy, but Shinji seemed to deflect it easily, removing the progressive knife from its shoulder bay without even slowing down. It was only when he'd slammed the knife into the Angel's core, and it had stopped hovering, falling to the ground with a loud crash, that he looked around, noticing the charred and blackened body of Unit 00 laying nearby, part of what looked like a large rifle still clutched in one hand.

"Rei?" Shinji called, and in Central Dogma, Ranma cursed.

"Is the Angel still responding?" he asked, hurriedly.

"Um, no sir, no blue pattern detected," Maya returned, though Ranma was out of the room after the second word.

HR.

"Rei!" Shinji yelled, as he clambered out of Unit 01's entry plug, sliding down the side of the reclining EVA, and running across the crater that the explosion had caused. "Rei, are you all right?"

Rei's entry plug was laying on the ground several feet from her downed Evangelion, where Shinji had laid it after the Central Dogma techs had ejected it. Strangely, it looked as though it hadn't been part of the beating that the rest of the EVA's exterior armor had been through, but the pilot hadn't acknowledged any requests for contact, or even opened the hatch.

The fact that it easily slid aside at Shinji's efforts made the boy even more worried, and when he saw the pilot inside, slumped over her control panel, he made record time clambering up to her side. "Rei? Wake up! Wake up!" He reached forward and shook the girl, but as he did so, her head raised and revealed that her eyes were open.

"That hurt," she noted, dryly, before slumping into his arms, shaking slightly.

The brown haired boy just sat there uncomfortably, unsure what to do, until he heard footsteps outside of the plug and looked up to see Ranma standing there, his uniform looking rather disheveled. "Rei, Ranma's here. I think we can go home now," Shinji said, uncertainly.

END.


	7. Chapter VI: Tonight on RAW

Note: Neither of this fic's authors particularly took Jet Alone seriously. Can you tell?

Chapter VI: Tonight on RAW.

"Rei!" The blue haired girl jumped, as Ranma grabbed her shoulder, pulling her away from the crack of the furo door, and back into the change room. "You're not gunna see anything in there, at least nothing you or I want you seeing," the pigtailed man grumbled, wondering precisely how red Shinji would turn when he, inevitably, opened the door.

"I only wished to collect more information," the Ayanami girl protested, almost sounding petulant.

"Well, you don't need that kind of data," her guardian grumbled. "Now get outta here. You've got trash duty today."

"Yes, sir," Rei said, turning and leaving the room, while Ranma sighed, picking up the laundry he'd dropped in order to stop her activity and tossing it into the dryer. The First Child had been acting quite oddly ever since the Angel attack the week before. While she had been nervous, and had apparently even had one nightmare about the Fifth Angel, that was perfectly natural, in his opinion.

The renewed, and rather hardy, interest in the Jusenkyo curses was something else again, though it did seem to make at least some sense, as Rei had always been somewhat fascinated with water. Turning on the washing machine, he exited the room and made for the kitchen, where he saw that Ritsuko was poking the rice he'd made experimentally with a spoon.

"Won't be ready for a few minutes," he said rapidly, ushering his wife back towards the living room table. While the woman wasn't anything like Akane in the kitchen, she always liked to... experiment... with recipes, and her last experiment had involved adding some flavor with the benefit of some cinnamon she'd found at the grocery store.

"I wasn't going to do anything to it," the scientist objected slightly defensively, as she returned to the morning paper she'd laid aside. Ranma briefly noted a headline about NERV's ridiculous overspending, which had been running ever since the Fifth Angel had destroyed the editor's car.

"So, what's on the agenda today?" He asked, as he stirred the rice.

"Commander Ikari wants to talk to me about the Fourth Angel's core," Ritsuko grumbled. "Probably wants to transfer it somewhere else for study."

"Well, having that thing in Tokyo-3 kinda makes me nervous," Ranma admitted, getting an irritated look from his wife.

She was about to respond to that, when Rei spoke up, "Parent Teacher interviews are scheduled for today."

"Huh? Why didn't we hear about this?" Ranma asked, confused.

"I left the forms in my locker in the changing room, during the last Angel attack," Rei admitted, "and Shinji had asked me to hold his while he went to work."

"At least you didn't say Unit 00 ate 'em," Ranma grumbled.

"Unit 00 cannot eat them, its mouth is bolted shut," Rei responded, flatly.

"The EVAs have mouths?" Shinji's voice cut through Ranma's probable exasperated response, as he entered the room wearing his school uniform.

"The EVA units are bio-mechanical constructs based off of human DNA," Ritsuko said matter-of-factly. "Honestly Shinji, I did tell you this before."

"Oh," Shinji muttered, suddenly thinking that the scorched skin he'd seen under Unit 00's armor made a lot more sense now. Deciding that he would rather not have heard that, the boy sat down at the table waiting for breakfast, pretending he hadn't.

"Anyhow, I'll go to the school, since all I've got waiting for me at NERV's a pile of paperwork," Ranma said, taking the pot of rice off of the burner and bringing it over to the table.

"You really shouldn't put that off," Ritsuko objected.

"It'll get done," The pigtailed man shrugged, as Shinji tuned out the conversation, serving up his food.

HR.

As she entered Commander Ikari's office, Ritsuko had to shake her head, wondering why the man insisted on leaving the place so dark. Her husband had once called him the Prince of Darkness, and she briefly let herself wonder if he'd meant the way he kept his office, rather than the obvious fallen angel reference.

"Dr. Akagi," the brown haired man said, from where he was sitting behind his desk, his computer screen reflecting just enough light onto his glasses to obscure his eyes. "What is the ready status of the EVAs?"

"Unit 01 is fully functional," Ritsuko responded. "Unit 00's biological components are nearly fully regenerated, and we're beginning the combat armor refit. ETA is about two months."

NERV's commander nodded. "Have you been tracking the Jet Alone project?" he asked, curiously.

"They're just starting combat trials in a week, aren't they? Some corporate based answer to the Evangelion... with a nuclear reactor for power and no AT Field," Ritsuko summarized, her words tinged with derision.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Yes, unfortunately the U.N. seems to think that it's going to be their savior from having to pump billions of dollars into us to stop the Angels. They're calling a large press conference for tomorrow afternoon."

The scientist barely suppressed the urge to jump, and cursed the low light again as she hadn't even noticed the grey haired man standing quietly behind Gendo. Trying to pretend she'd never lost her composure, she asked, "Am I to attend?"

"We're going to ship the Fourth Angel's core to the Americans for use in their S2 program, now that we've determined its safe to handle, so they're likely going to approve our next budget request regardless, however..." NERV's commander trailed off, though Ritsuko got the point.

"How far am I to go?" she asked, nervously. Ranma was likely to demand to go with her on this trip, primarily due to his very overpowered protective instincts, and there were some lines she wasn't terribly willing to cross herself.

"Here are several suggestions, and a security card that we've managed to acquire," Fuyutsuki said, sliding a folder across the table. Ritsuko took the papers, before turning and leaving the room.

HR.

"Rei," Ranma sighed, as she sat across from the blue haired girl on her and Ritsuko's bed, ringing the last 'experimental' cup of water out of her pigtail. "This is getting annoying again."

"I simply wish to ascertain how Shinji's change is different from yours," the First Child said. "Dr. Akagi has told me that experimentation is the surest way of establishing a fact."

Ranma winced, though she took a little pleasure in thinking that she could mention this to her wife next time she made a joke about Ranma being a bad influence on Rei. "Shinji doesn't have a curse, he's got an unusual preference in clothes and a rather feminine face," she said, opening her closet door and starting to rummage around inside.

"I... don't understand," Rei said, blinking in confusion.

"Shinji doesn't turn into a girl, he just wears girls' clothes. Many people wear things that are generally considered for the opposite gender, for many different reasons, but you're not gunna figure out how he does it by ambushing either of us with water," the pigtailed martial artist explained, grimacing as she realized she only had one set of the male dress uniform, and it was currently sopping wet.

Reaching for a skirt-suit that Ritsuko had bought for her as a birthday present, one of the perils of being born on April first, she began to change. "Now if I don't get movin, Ritsuko'll probably leave without me. Just promise you won't ambush anyone with glasses of water anymore, all right?"

"I promise," Rei said, reluctantly., and stood from the bed, exiting the room. When the door slid shut behind her, her eyes narrowed in thought and she began walking down the hallway. Passing Shinji's room, she stopped, and a speculative expression crossed her face.

HR.

"Rei got you, hmm?" Ritsuko asked, her mouth quirking up into a half grin, as she saw a very annoyed redhead walking across the tarmac towards her, a file folder in her hand.

"Yeah, on the way out, too," Ranma grumbled. "And Makoto refused to do my paperwork for me this time."

"Didn't smile wide enough?" Ritsuko asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Two security clearances higher than he's allowed to see," Ranma admitted sheepishly. "Forgot to read the clearance status."

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. When things didn't have directly to do with combat, or occasionally Rei or Shinji, Ranma would rather leave them to someone else and go train. Truthfully, it was a wonder that NERV's tactical section was still running along schedule, but she'd been thinking similar things since college.

As the two took seats in the back of the NERV VTOL craft that sat at the end of the runway, The brunette retrieved a pen from her coat pocket, presenting it to the redhead with a flourish. "You sure you can't do it?" Ranma asked, hopefully.

"There are certain areas where you have higher clearance than me, remember?" Ritsuko replied, resolutely ignoring the puppy dog eyes she was being given, though only through years of practice. Eventually, they got too much for her, and she dug out the report the commander had given her in order to distract herself.

The martial artist sighed, uncapping her pen and beginning work on a set of recommendations for safety upgrades in the areas surrounding Terminal Dogma that she had written herself, three weeks prior.

HR.

"I'm home," Shinji called, changing his shoes at the door and setting down a bag of groceries he'd gone to get when he'd noticed that they were running a little low.

Hearing Rei's voice in response, calling "Welcome home" from somewhere near the back of the house wasn't unexpected, as the adults of the residence had mentioned that morning over breakfast that they had a business trip. What was unexpected, however, was when he rounded the bend that lead into the main hall, and saw Rei walking towards him, a towel over one shoulder. "Huh?" he asked, blinking at her.

"Hello, Shinji-kun," Rei said, nodding.

The Third Child thought about just keeping quiet about the scene he saw in front of him, but finally decided that the little bit of extra weirdness demanded an explanation. "Why are you wearing one of my school uniforms, Rei?"

The blue haired girl, who now looked rather a lot like a clone of Shinji, just shrugged. "Do I look sufficiently boyish?"

"Huh?" Shinji asked, looking over the other. Her small breasts were bound, so the shirt fell about right, and she'd restyled her hair slightly, most of it pulled into a short ponytail at the base of her neck. "Um, you look okay, I guess," he offered.

"Excellent," Rei nodded. "I believe I have begun to understand why you dress the way you do. I have noticed that this uniform is significantly easier to move in than the school's girls uniform. Specifically, there is no skirt to flap, and aerial maneuvers contain much less potential for embarrassment. Is there some similar benefit to your work outfits?"

"I wear those at work because it's the uniform," Shinji sputtered, now completely confused.

"Ranma-san told me that you likely had a reason, however she did not mention work regulations," Rei said, shaking her head.

"She.. didn't?" Shinji asked, his eyes widening. Ranma, of course, wasn't Ukyo, but he'd seen them talking at the restaurant a few times, so it was likely he would know. "It wasn't a uniform?"

"Is something the matter, Shinji-kun?" Rei asked, a small note of concern entering her voice.

"Um, no," Shinji said, shaking his head. "Just ask before you borrow my clothes next time, okay?"

"Understood." Rei said, before turning and heading back to the training room.

HR.

"Hmm, this table looks happening," a drawling voice observed, its owner studying the one table in the large meeting hall that only had two people, one of which was struggling to keep her eyes open while listening to an explanation of the Jet Alone's power system which was being presented by a white haired old man with a pair of glasses that Mousse would probably envy.

Looking up, Ranma saw a woman with a very familiar brown bowl-cut, the word "Press" written across the ID badge that was pinned to the front of her black business suit. "Yeah, well, saviors of humanity, you know," she muttered, sourly.

"Well, you got pretty much the same reaction for saving Akane," the middle Tendo sister shrugged. "She still thinks you're an asshole, by the way."

"Would you like to sit down, Miss Tendo?" Ritsuko asked, looking up from the handout that she was reading, which listed Jet Alone's capabilities.

The reporter shrugged, taking a seat and grabbing Ranma's untouched copy of the report that the other brunette was reading, as she hadn't been provided with a copy.

The room abruptly went silent before Nabiki could start pumping the NERV delegation for information, as the head of the Jet Alone research team stepped up on stage, and she removed her recorder from one pocket. The next few minutes went along rather routinely, and Ranma was starting to let her head fall to the table, when the man opened the floor to questions, and Ritsuko quickly stood, asking one about the nuclear reactor that powered the machine.

Nabiki's interest perked, and even Ranma appeared to be paying more attention, as Ritsuko and the representative began tossing questions and answers back and fourth, though the middle Tendo's eyebrow twitched violently when the man, who she quickly re-dubbed 'asshole,' made a joke about the Evangelions being like hysterical women.

It'd been guys like him that had forced her out of the business world and into a place where she could make her way up more easily, and she smirked as she saw Ranma's fist begin to tighten. Still, she didn't forget her duty as a reporter, and made notes on the 'AT Field" as it was mentioned.

"The AT Field is only a temporary advantage that NERV possesses," the man was saying, as Ranma began to rise to her feet. "Time and research will soon close that gap."

Ritsuko glared at the speaker, not sure how to respond to several of NERV's main secrets being in the open, and she was surprised when Ranma's voice cut in. "Are you saying that, without the advantage of the AT Field, Jet Alone could replace an Evangelion in combat?"

"And you are?" the speaker asked, indignantly.

"NERV's Strategic Operations Officer," Ranma introduced herself. " I'm very interested in the answer to this question, because personally, I'd rather not send fourteen year old children into battle, as you put it previously."

As Ritsuko sat down, Nabiki whispered, "When did Saotome actually learn debating skills?"

"Unless he did it when I wasn't looking, he hasn't," Ritsuko replied, flatly.

"Well," the speaker sputtered. "Jet Alone is fully combat capable, and is going into tests next week."

"Then how about this," Ranma said, smirking slightly. "Your Jet Alone fights one of our Evangelions. Because it's a test model, it'll even be our test type."

"What?" the man asked, his eyes widening, as Ritsuko hissed the same thing just loudly enough for Ranma to hear. The redhead reached down, gently squeezing her wife's shoulder, and Ritsuko nodded, though there was a look in her eyes that said 'we'll talk about this later.'

"Well," Ranma explained. "You mentioned NERV sucking up all of the funds. We're spending every yen we get on defeating the angels, so if we lose funding, and have to scrap or decommission an EVA, I need to know that Jet Alone will have us covered."

The Jet Alone representative looked out over the crowd, and to his horror, he saw that there were several nods of agreement with NERV's officer's statement. Other than a few grainy photographs and a report or two from Tokyo-3 residents, he had no idea what an EVA could do, but if he didn't respond to the challenge, he was likely to lose the entire audience, including the very important U.N. delegates conferring near the back of the room.

"If some barbaric grudge match is the only way that we can prove Jet Alone's superiority to your machine, then I will consult my superiors and see if it can be arranged," he said, giving Ranma a very angry glare.

"Behind the school at 3:00?" Nabiki whispered to Ritsuko, who actually had to raise a hand to cover a snigger.

HR.

"I'm fighting what?" Shinji Ikari yelled, more shocked than anything else, as he sat in the passenger compartment of the massive EVA transport, staring up at the dead serious face of Ranma Saotome.

"It's a large mech designed to fill the same role as the EVA units," the strategic operations officer explained. "Unfortunately, it would also fill our nitch with the UN, and NERV would pretty much have to shut down."

"I don't really see the downside," Shinji admitted, before he could stop himself.

"It doesn't have an AT Field," Ranma replied.

"Oh." That was about all the Third Child could really think of to say on that matter, as he imagined trying to fight the Third Angel, or even worse, the Fifth without an AT Field.

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "Fortunately, this time we've got a nearly complete list of capabilities, and we know that the machine carries no weaponry. This means that you can't use your AT field or progressive knife, but you should know what you're up against." Handing Shinji the handout, rather dogeared by this point, that Ritsuko had been reading, the strategic operations officer waited for questions.

"I should know?" the brown haired boy asked, nervously, and wondering if he was going to be blasted with a giant laser cannon again.

"Well, we certainly didn't tell them everything about the EVAs," Ranma shrugged, causing her charge to gulp.

HR.

Gaghiel was rather intelligent, for an Angel of his age. When he had learned that the planet they had been born onto was composed mostly of water, he had taken an aquatic form in order to hunt down and bond with Adam more easily.

It really wasn't his fault, therefore, that he was nearly totally incapable of assaulting the fortress city of Tokyo-3, where he could sense the signature power of an egg and its associated progenitor. At the moment, he was lurking several hundred miles off of the coast of Japan, pondering his options.

He'd circled around, trying to see if there was some sort of marine inlet to the city, but unless he wanted to try and squeeze his aircraft carrier sized bulk up a sewage pipe, that was looking like a solid negative.

By this point, he was frustrated enough to consider heaving himself up on the beach and dragging himself across the ground, but he was pretty sure that whatever was defending the progenitor would carve him into fillets, much as it had apparently done to Sachiel, Shamshel and Ramiel.

As he debated going back to sleep for another few thousand years and seeing if things had changed or one of his siblings had seized the progenitor, the Angel of fish suddenly felt something appear almost half way around the planet that felt almost exactly the same as whatever was being held on the island he'd been circling for the past few weeks.

Giving the angelic equivalent of a shrug, the massive sea creature adjusted his course, and started towards this new feeling as quickly as he could. After all, there was a better than average chance that it would be in the water, and three other Angels hadn't disappeared mysteriously trying to get it.

HR.

"You know," Ritsuko said as she and Ranma sat in Jet Alone's main control room in a set of observer seats, "I was just planning to induce a meltdown and force them to let it fall on its face."

"Yeah, but this'll be a lot more impressive," Ranma replied, as Unit 01 stood from its kneeling position outside, a set of batteries hooked to its shoulders along with its usual umbilical cable. "Plus, I checked this thing's specs, Unit 01'll have no problem with it, and it'll increase Shinji's confidence."

"I suppose," the scientist agreed before sighing. As she looked down into the part of the reserve seating that wasn't for people the Jet Alone staff didn't like, she asked, "And why's she doing that?"

"Hmm?" Ranma asked, looking down to see Nabiki walking down the isles with a pad of paper, taking money from various delegates. "Nostalgia, probably."

As Ritsuko processed that response, what looked like a building in front of the observation window rumbled open, and Jet Alone was revealed in all of its top-heavy, beige and red glory. The start up checks were relatively normal, and Ranma mostly tuned them out, until a set of six projections came from the robot's back, poking up over its shoulders.

"Are those...?" Ranma said, and she could hear Shinji saying the same thing through an earpiece she wore.

"Yep," Ritsuko replied, sighing.

"Okay Shinji, don't break any of those," Ranma said, nervously, receiving an equally nervous affirmative from the Third Child. When the JA project director started issuing orders to make the machine walk, her eyes practically rolled up into the top of her head in exasperation, though she managed to keep watching until it had made its way out onto the practice field and turned towards Unit 01.

Turning towards the balcony where Ranma and Ritsuko sat, the man asked, "Well? Is Unit 01 prepared for combat?"

"So, you're finally ready?" Ritsuko actually asked before Ranma could even open her mouth. At the black haired man's annoyed nod, Ranma shrugged.

"No progressive knife, no AT Field, and battery power only, right?" The redhead asked. Getting another nod, she tapped her mic. "Shinji, eject the umbilical cable and attack at will."

"Wait, what?" the project leader squawked, as a puff of gas ejected the cable from its port on Unit 01's back, and the Evangelion began charging rapidly towards its opponent. "Defensive maneuvers now!"

Jet Alone just barely managed to get its arms up in time to grab the Evangelion by the forearms, and the two began shoving against each other. Ranma heard Shinji grunting with effort, and Unit 01 was slowly being pushed backwards as she was being smirked at by a couple technicians who didn't need to be watching their panels after the start up. Abruptly, the EVA shoved itself to the side, ripping one arm free from its opponent's grasp and spinning out of the way as the other robot stumbled forward, its balance thrown off due to the sudden lack of resistance.

"Damn it, stabilize!" one tech at the front of the room shouted across to another.

"I'm trying!"

Unit 01 continued spinning with the momentum it had gained from Jet Alone's passage, and raised one foot, sending it smashing into the other machine's armored lower back. Jet Alone abruptly lost the battle it had been waging with gravity, falling forward with an impact that shook the control center.

"Get it before it can get back up," Ranma ordered, though she really didn't have to bother, as it appeared that getting back up was quite an involved process for JA. Shinji still followed her orders, though, raising Unit 01's foot and bringing it crashing down as hard as he could on the other machine's back. Seeing a slight dent in the armor there, he did it again, and again, and again.

After the forth strike, the control center went abruptly silent for a few moments, after which alarms started wailing from half of the consoles in the room. "Reactor core fractured!" one panicky opperator called out.

"Coolant lines 2 and 5 have been cut!" another reported.

"Ambient radiation level beginning to spike around the unit, beginning mandatory shutdown," a third called, and the project leader looked up at the ceiling with a look on his face that Ranma couldn't really describe.

As the grey and red machine settle down into dormancy, and Shinji nervously backed Unit 01 away from it, hearing the comment about radiation, Ritsuko couldn't help but let in a final jab. "Running continuously for one hundred and fifty days, hmm?"

END.

Note: Well, that was definitely... different. The divergence really starts to show this chapter, and we hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to tell us in a review.

Next Episode Preview.

Hi Everyone! I bet you can't guess who I am! That's right, I finally show up in this fanfic next chapter, and I'm sure all of you have been waiting for it! Next chapter, the Second Child arrives, the Sixth Angel attacks, and there's gunna be Service!


	8. Chapter 7: Deadliest Catch

A word of advice. Episode previews in fanfics are a bad idea. Well, we promised Gaghiel, and we delivered him, 2.5k over the usual chapter length, but that's not a bad thing, we suppose.

Chapter Spectrum: Deadliest Catch.

Shinji sighed in contentment as he walked down the street to school, the fact that Rei had asked to borrow one of his uniforms this morning not even really impinging on his awareness all that much.

Things were finally starting to look up for him. Just three days ago, he had piloted Unit 01 into battle, and come out of it without even a twinge of discomfort, or even that much fear. To add to that, he'd talked to Mrs. Ryoji, and the misunderstanding regarding his clothes had been cleared up, so he was going to go in today wearing an apron over his school uniform.

All in all, life in Tokyo-3 was getting, slowly and surely, better for the young brown haired boy, even if he still had to pilot the giant purple biomecha. It didn't even really break his mood when he heard Kensuke call out "Rei? What in the world happened to you?"

Turning his gaze from the clear, blue sky he'd been looking up at, Shinji saw that Kensuke had actually dropped his camera in shock as he stared at the two of them, the digital device saved from smashing only by the leather strap that hung it around his neck.

Looking over at Rei, Shinji blinked, and the two returned similar confused looks to Kensuke. "Is there something wrong with her?" he asked, at the exact same time Rei was asking, "Is there something wrong with me?"

Kensuke looked for a moment between the brown haired boy, and the blue haired girl whose only real evidence of her gender in the boys school uniform she wore was her hair style, and the small bust visible under her shirt.

"This has something to do with Captain Saotome, doesn't it?" he asked. He'd known about the pigtailed officer's curse for years, ever since Rei had told him about it and he'd demanded proof, but secretly he was sure that Ranma was some sort of NERV super-soldier project that had gone kind of wrong in the final stages. Perhaps they were trying the same thing on Rei, now?

"Actually, it was Shinji-kun's idea," Rei returned, calmly, causing the Ikari boy to step back as the military otaku fixed him with a steely glare.

"What have you done to Rei?" Kensuke demanded, stomping up into Shinji's personal space and looking far more intimidating than anyone that short had the right to be. "Is this some sort of perverted clone fantasy?"

"What? No!" Shinji yelled, creeped out by the idea, and not noticing the mildly disturbed look that had flitted across Rei's face. "It's Rei's idea, she got it when she asked about..." Suddenly, he snapped his mouth shut, blushing, before continuing rather heatedly, "just never mind how she got it, it's not my fault!"

"Okay," Kensuke said, reluctantly, backing off from Shinji just as the bell rang, and the Third Child sighed in relief.

HR

Nabiki Tendo winced as she entered her editor's office. The older woman was holding her report on the Jet Alone incident, as well as several other papers, and scowling at one of them. "You wanted to see me, Ma'am?" the middle Tendo daughter asked, hating the fact that she actually sounded slightly nervous.

"What the hell is this?" her superior snapped, sliding one of the papers across the desk. Nabiki's worry got about five times worse when she saw the image on it, one apparently taken by another reporter at the event, which showed her accepting money from one of the system technicians. "I'm pretty sure you weren't paid off by Jet Alone's staff, because if you had been, your report wouldn't be so flattering of the Evangelion. However you do realize what it looks like."

The younger woman winced. She hadn't really been thinking of that, which she kicked herself for. The atmosphere had just so reminded her of one of Ranma's old Furinkan fights that it seemed like the thing to do. Besides which, it had won her a ridiculous amount of money, since pretty much no one had bet on the Evangelion to win. Seeing that her superior was tapping one finger on the edge of her desk irritably, she continued, "It wasn't anything like that," before muttering more quietly, "It was a betting pool."

"A betting pool?" The editor now looked almost like she was going to start laughing. "You ran a betting pool on the fight?" At Nabiki's nod, she sighed. "I don't think I've ever heard you do anything that stupid, and that's including the time you snuck into a U.N. military supply base. Unfortunately, the pictures a few of the other papers have gotten throw some serious doubt onto your journalistic character, so I'm not sure we can use you on any of our main stories for the next little while."

"Damn," Nabiki grumbled. Granted, her winnings from the Jet Alone incident would fund a vacation for a few months, but it would be so boring, with no secrets to ferret out. "Can't I take a less front-line assignment?" she asked, hopefully.

The editor grinned widely, and Nabiki suddenly felt as though she'd fallen into one of her own verbal traps. "We've got one assignment for you," The older woman said, sliding another picture over the desk. This one was of Evangelion Unit 01, roaring at the sky. "Most news sources have had trouble getting someone into Tokyo-3, NERV's computer systems can make it kind of difficult to transfer certain materials out of the city, and when dealing with Angel attacks, even Freedom of Information usually only gets you good forgeries."

"You... you want me to go into Tokyo-3?" Nabiki asked, gulping.

The other woman nodded. "Even your report stated that you know one of NERV's higher ups, perhaps you can use that to get some leverage."

'Besides, you don't have much of a choice,' Nabiki knew the other woman was thinking, though didn't say. "All right, when do I leave?" she asked, resigned.

Her boss smirked.

HR.

Gendo Ikari felt vaguely as though he was fourteen again, being called before the principal of his high school because he'd accidentally broken a window during gym class. At the very least, that was what the expression Chairman Keel was wearing reminded him of, as he sat in his traditional position at the foot of the Instrumentality Committee's conference table.

"You launched an Evangelion in a zone absolutely full of mass media and corporate scientists who would just love to reverse engineer it," the visored man began, calmly.

"You left Jet Alone's termination method up to me, and I chose to allow my officers to take care of it," Gendo said, his mouth forming an expression similar to having to swallow a lemon as he spoke the next section. "Though Mr. Saotome's plan caused a serious security breach, the positive results can't be underestimated. Unit 01's impressive and decisive destruction of Jet Alone has caused complete and total withdrawal of funds from the prototype, which have been redirected to us, and the unit wasn't even scratched."

Seeing the committee's various members giving him skeptical expressions, the brown haired man continued, "Any future plans this... reckless... are to be approved by myself or Sub-commander Fuyutsuki before implementation, and the Strategic Operations Officer has been made quite aware of that fact."

Keel nodded. "See that anything that will disturb the plan is stopped, unlike the incident with the Fourth Angel's core."

"The Fourth Angel?" Gendo asked, actually somewhat surprised, but hiding it well.

"The Americans have apparently used the core to uncover some 'minor flaws' in the engine, and have moved its completion date forward drastically." Keel frowned.

"That can only be to our advantage," Gendo cut in. "More Evangelion Units are simply insurance, not a disruption."

"Yes, and they will allow you to keep your precious Unit 01 out of combat," one of the Committee members snapped, before being glared down by Keel. Still, the comment noticeably effected Gendo, as he flinched.

"We are done here," the grey haired man snapped. "Gendo, remember the plan, and do not let any external forces interfere."

"Don't worry," Commander Ikari said, as the others faded from the holographic conference table, "I won't."

HR.

"Where the hell am I now?' Ryoga Hibiki bellowed, and could feel the tension slipping away as he uttered the old, familiar words. He considered following them up with an insult aimed at Ranma Saotome, especially since he was only wandering through the streets of Tokyo-3 because of Ranma's missing robot pilot, but decided against it. After all, he had to save some stress relief for when he'd really need it.

At the moment he was still within the city limits of what he was relatively sure was Tokyo-3, and not lost in that really creepy place with the spines hanging from the ceiling, or the room with all of the creepy, naked girls who didn't induce a nosebleed simply because he was too terrified from the soulless, red stares... not that he'd ever admit that if someone asked him.

"Excuse me," he asked, shaking his head and deciding to get back to his task rather than dwelling on the nightmarishly hellish girls. "Have you seen this person?"

The tall, grey haired man in the strangely military looking uniform that he stopped studied the image, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you looking for this boy?" he asked, curiously, moving one hand behind his back in a casual manner.

"Oh," Ryoga said, obliviously. "A friend of mine's been looking for him; apparently he ran away or something a month or two ago."

"Oh," the grey haired man said, relaxing slightly and letting his hand drop to his side. "I'm afraid that the boy in question has already been found."

"He... he has?" Ryoga asked, his eyes widening. The grey haired man nodded. Ryoga's hands scrunched up into fists, and he turned his face to the sky yelling "Ranma Saotome, you bastard! How dare you not tell me you found him! I'm going to kill you!"

The grey haired man, otherwise known as Kozo Fuyutsuki, nodded sharply. As he'd thought, the strangely dressed man wasn't a security risk, simply another assassin out for NERV's Strategic Operations Officer. Waving absently, he turned to the bus station to travel to his apartment.

HR.

"You've got to be kidding," Nabiki muttered, as she stared at the rather familiar storefront where she had made a decent amount of money as a teenager, mostly by acting as an information broker to the owner. Granted, the old Ucchan's hadn't offered an 'EVA Foot Okonomiyaki' as a main order, but otherwise it was very similar.

Deciding that she was rather hungry after spending the last few hours exploring Tokyo-3, the brown haired woman pulled the door open, walking in. Inside, the idea that she was having some sort of surreal flashback was increased, as Ukyo Kuonji, complete with her bandolier of mini-spatulas, though looking a lot more feminine, stood behind the counter, and one of her two waiters appeared to be Konatsu, if he were a couple of years younger, and had shortish brown hair.

Sidling up to the counter, Nabiki withdrew 500 yen from her wallet, slapping it down. "The usual," she ordered, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"That's a seafood okonomiyaki with wasabi, right sugar?" Ukyo said, automatically, before her conscious mind could catch up with her automatic reflexes. "Nabiki Tendo?" she yelped, almost fumbling the okonomiyaki she was in the middle of flipping.

"Yeah, and I've got some news about Ranma dating this computer scientist that you've got to hear," the middle Tendo said, sitting on one of the stools.

"Huh, so he's going after Lieutenant Ibuki now?" Ukyo asked with a smirk. Nabiki chuckled, but also pulled a notebook out of her pocket and jotted the name down. "It's been a long while, but I see you haven't changed much," the okonomiyaki chef offered, though her statement was more conversational than anything else.

Nabiki shrugged. "No real reason to, I guess," she responded. "Though I could say the same, this place looks almost exactly like the old Ucchan's, and you've even got the crossdressing waiter."

"Most people don't figure Shinji-chan out that fast," Ukyo admitted. "He's not as bad as Konatsu, as far as I can tell he doesn't actually think he's a girl, but he came up all indignant about thinking dressing like that was the uniform a week ago, and then started doing it again two days later, so..." she shrugged. "And yes, I pay him more than 200 yen an hour."

Nabiki nodded, wondering where she'd heard the name Shinji before, but that thought was quickly jolted out of her mind, as she heard the front doors swing open violently, and a very familiar shout of "Saotome! Where are you? Come out and fight like a man!"

"You sure we're not back in District 15?" the reporter asked, irritably. If she had to deal with the kind of crap she'd dealt with as a teenager along with Angels attacking her place of work every few weeks, she'd tell her boss to take a flying leap and go freelance.

HR.

"So, how's it going?" Ritsuko almost leapt out of her chair as a hand landed on her shoulder, at the same moment the female voice entered her ear. She turned from the monitor she was looking at, which showed a set of interlocking sections of what was hopefully going to be Unit 00's armor to see Ranma's smirking face.

"Don't sneak up on me like that," she grumbled, irritably.

"I didn't even bother hiding my footsteps this time," Ranma returned. "I'm telling you, you've really got to work on that environmental awareness, especially since Aoba informs me you've been at this since 1200 hours yesterday."

"Yes, Mother," the doctor said, before wincing, realizing that the clock on the corner of her desktop read 0930. Noting that Ranma had brought a wrapped ham sandwich, she grabbed it out of the redhead's hand and began tearing it open.

"I was gunna eat that," the martial artist grumbled, though Ritsuko didn't put too much stock into the complaint, as Ranma could have kept it out of her hands if she had wanted to. "Anyhow, I'm pulling Rei out of class today. The Second Child's just reached chopper range, and the Big Cheese has ordered that she be met."

"So you've given up on trying to stay male while at sea, I see," Ritsuko said, wincing as she recalled precisely who else would be with the young German pilot, and wondering if Ranma had opted for female form due to that, instead.

"I learned my lesson last time," the pigtailed martial artist grumbled, before turning to head for the door. "I've ordered Maya to cut your network access in an hour on wellness grounds, by the way."

"Damn," Ritsuko cursed, discarding her sandwich wrapper into the garbage, and cracking her knuckles loudly before returning to the computer screen. "One hour, huh?" She grinned, and began typing.

From her station several consoles away, Maya Ibuki sighed. Her superior's ability with a computer when she was really pushed for time was amazing, but as she heard the sound of keys clattering, seeming more like a low buzz, she thought that she'd probably have to replace the keyboard after the older woman had left... again.

HR.

"What'cha doing?" A purple haired woman almost jumped out of her skin, as her red haired charge popped up the ladder into the observation area she was standing in, just off the bridge tower.

"Asuka," Misato Katsuragi sighed, about as serious as the Second Child had ever seen her. "I'm waiting for the NERV representatives to arrive."

"Is the Third Child going to be there?" the German asked, curiously. "I wonder if the vanquisher of the first Angel will be cute?"

"I'm not sure who they're sending," Misato said, only half-truthfully. Usually, when Asuka started in about cute boys, her caretaker was always willing to poke at her for it, so there was something serious going on here.

"Hmm," the younger girl said, walking over to the rail at the edge of the platform, and looking around to stare into her guardian's eyes. "Something's got you worried," she decided.

"No! No, I'm fine," Misato said, waving her hand airily. "I'm just kind of worried about you and Unit 02 when you get to Japan, that's all."

"Well," Asuka said, puffing up proudly. "That's a pretty stupid thing to worry about! I bet Unit 02's three times better than that test-type or the prototype they've got over in Tokyo-3 so I'll do fine!"

"Mmhmm," Misato said, distantly, before suddenly leaning forward and squinting into the distance. Asuka blinked, before following the older woman's eyesight and noticing a black dot that may have been a flying vehicle of some sort, or may have been a random bird. Irritated, she turned and climbed back down the ladder.

Misato was acting weird, and she didn't know why. It happened every once in a while, and she found that the best thing to do when it did was lay low until the inevitable drinking binge was over. Unfortunately, the carrier either didn't have any alcohol aboard, or they had been remarkably good at hiding it.

As she reached the bottom of the ladder, Asuka sighed. "C'mon, Pen-pen, let's find something to do," she said, and a rather large black and white bird came toddling out of the shadows nearby, hopping into Asuka's arms as she bent down to pick it up. "Maybe we can run around on the flight deck for a while." The Penguin seemed to 'wark' in agreement, and Asuka started down the corridors, waving at a crewman who was carrying a box of electronics as she passed.

As she exited the command tower, however, walking onto the main flight deck, the redhead's eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of a large, bulky military helicopter touching down in the middle of the deck, and several people climbing out. "That's got to be them," she whispered to Pen-pen, who had managed to migrate up to her shoulder as she walked, perching there as though he were half his size.

Asuka threw a glance back towards the top of the carrier's super-structure, catching a glimpse of Misato's purple hair, before returning her gaze to the NERV transport, where a woman who looked quite a lot like her, only years older, was signing some papers on a clipboard. Next to her stood a girl with light blue hair and disconcertingly pale skin in a T-shirt and a pair of dress pants, along with a rather short, geeky looking guy. "Aw, so much for the Third Child being cute," the German redhead sulked, disappointedly.

Still, these people were going to be her colleagues, and Misato had insisted that she try and get along with them, even if they were jerks. Squaring her shoulders, and incidentally almost sending Pen-pen falling off of the left one, she marched up to the group. "Hello!" she said, brightly.

"Hello," the pale blue haired girl said, though the boy whom she assumed was the Third Child had apparently gotten distracted, and was filming a nearby F-22.

"Hello?" the Second Child asked, shoving her face in front of the boy's camera lens.

"Oh, um, hi," the boy said, lowering his camera and laughing nervously.

"My name is Asuka Langley-Soryu," Asuka said, getting back on track. "I am the designated pilot of Evangelion Unit 02!"

"I am Rei Ayanami, pilot of Evangelion Unit 00," the pale skinned girl said, nodding to her. She waited for the boy to say something, before she noticed that he was back filming the jet fighter, and her eyebrow twitched.

"Hey, you idiot, what are you doing?" she demanded, grabbing the boy's camera and pulling, managing to turn both him and the device towards her, just as the wind picked up, and the yellow sundress she'd been wearing fluttered up.

"Eek!" the girl yelped, hurriedly letting go of the camera and pulling her skirt down. The loud exclamation got the attention of the older woman who was with the two children, and she handed her clipboard to the helicopter's pilot, before he nodded, turned away and headed back to his vehicle.

"What's going on here?" the NERV officer demanded, looking up to see that a red haired girl had arrived, with a penguin perched on her shoulder. She dismissed that fact as unimportant, noting that the girl was turning a deepening shade of red.

"You... you... pervert!" the younger redhead shrieked, lashing out to smack the rather confused looking brown haired boy in the side of the head. She was startled when her hand stopped in a grip that almost felt like iron clamping around her wrist.

"Kensuke-kun would not have filmed what he filmed if you had not grabbed his camera," Rei said, flatly, as Asuka looked up her slapping arm to note that the hand around her wrist was rather pale. "I assure you, he is much more interested in the military hardware, and will be happy to delete the images."

"Wha... huh?" Asuka asked, as Rei let go of her hand and turned to Kensuke. He mutely handed her his camera, and she pressed a few buttons before handing it back. What really irritated Asuka was that the twerp immediately ran off, starting to take video of one of the catapults.

"Kensuke? So that's not the Third Child?" The pilot of EVA Unit 02 finally decided to ask, hoping that she could put that last mortifying moment behind her.

"Shinji was needed back in Tokyo-3," Ranma explained, rather wanting to avoid mentioning that the boy had declined the offer to go on the trip in order to go to work. "I'm sure he'll greet you when we return to the city, Asuka-san."

"Oh, all right," Asuka replied, actually kind of relieved that she wouldn't have to work with the jerk with the camera.

"Ranma!" Asuka turned from the newcomers to see Misato marching towards the group, an expression on her face similar to that worn when you were about to get punched in the jaw, knew it, and were trying to pretend you didn't care. The apparent caretaker of the other two children blinked, then smiled.

"Hey, Misato," she said, cheerfully. "Haven't seen ya in a while."

"A... while?" the Katsuragi woman stuttered, her expression dissolving in confusion. "I haven't seen you for eight years, and that was..." she slammed her mouth closed, biting back her next words.

Asuka looked between her caretaker and the other woman curiously, her quizzical expression actually well mirrored by Rei. 'There's something going on here,' the young redhead thought, her eyes narrowing.

"Can you keep Kensuke from throwin himself overboard?" Ranma was asking Misato. "I have to go talk to the captain of the ship. Apparently, he won't accept the transfer order unless it's hand delivered."

Misato winced, her apprehension about the past abruptly being replaced with irritation from the present. "I'll watch them," she agreed, recalling what Ranma had been like all those years ago, and sort of wishing that she could see the confrontation between him and the old windbag on the bridge.

Ranma nodded. "No worse than the Old Windbag back home," she replied, before walking off.

"Hmm," Asuka said, looking between Misato and the redhead. "Ayanami, do you have any idea what's going on?"

"I believe that Ranma-san mentioned that she and your caretaker were once romantically involved, though it was during a joke with Dr. Akagi," Rei replied.

"Misato? I had no idea!" Asuka said, giving the purple haired woman a strange look. "Were you planning on having your way with me or something?"

"That's not funny and you know it!" the Katsuragi woman yelled, getting into her charge's face.

"Yes it is," Asuka said, not seeming bothered about it at all. The penguin on her shoulder nodded in agreement.

"They've all turned against me," Misato said, glumly, though she couldn't help but feel a little relieved. She had half expected Ranma to try and cave her skull in or start screaming at her when the two met again, rather than greeting her as though they were long lost old friends. Of course, that was one of the things that had made the pigtailed person such a pain in the ass in college. You could never figure out what he was going to do.

Misato was jerked out of her brooding thoughts as Asuka continued. "Hmm, maybe I should have offered to go girl watching with you instead of asking if you thought the guys at the school were cute?"

"Not funny!" Misato yelled. "Besides, it's not like that!"

"What is it like then, hmm?" the German asked, curiously.

"It's..." Misato stuttered, unsure how to explain the curse without a victim present to demonstrate.

"Shouldn't we help her explain?" Kensuke, who had just gotten back after getting yelled at by a deck hand for standing on a catapult rail, asked.

""I'm finding this interaction interesting," Rei admitted.

"You mean you find it fun to watch," Kensuke replied, as the two new members of NERV's group began sticking tongues out at each other. "Is that a penguin?"

"Wark."

HR.

"I was wrong," Ranma muttered as she slumped down in a chair next to Misato and across from the children in the ship's mess. "This windbag is worse."

"That bad, huh?" Misato asked, wincing.

"He seems to think that the entire JSSDF and U.N. are just a bunch of wimps who haven't been trying hard enough," Ranma replied. "Talking about the EVAs as over grown children's toys... I'd like to show him that poor bastard who staggered in to command after the Third, just muttering 'Live ammo has no effect' over and over again."

Misato briefly winced at that thought. She'd seen video of the Third Angel battle, and wouldn't have been out there in the tanks if you'd promised her ten lifetime supplies of beer. She was about to comment, when she noted that Ranma had dug into her food, and given the portion was three times normal size, she'd probably be at it for a few minutes.

Looking over to the children, she saw that Asuka and the boy, Kensuke, were in an animated discussion about something, while Rei poked her salad rather warily, carefully extracting bacon bits and setting them to the side of her plate. When she saw a flicker out of the corner of her eye and several of the flecks of meat vanished from the side of Rei's plate, she rolled her eyes, deciding that she may as well tuck into her own food.

About three minutes later, Asuka suddenly shot up out of her seat. "I'll prove it to you!" she said, loudly. "Come with me, nerd-boy!"

"Hey, I resent that!" Kensuke replied, but followed along with the redhead.

"Keep an eye on them, would you Rei?" Ranma asked, sighing in exasperation.

"Affirmative," Rei nodded, standing and following as well, leaving the two adults alone.

"So..." Misato said, drawing out the word uncomfortably. "How've you been doing?"

HR.

"And now, presenting, the amazing production model, Unit 02!" Asuka proclaimed, as she gestured the other two children into the cargo bay aboard the heavy transport where her Evangelion was stored.

Kensuke immediately produced his camera and started filming again, while Rei looked over the machine analytically. "It is... red," she offered, uncertainly.

"That's not all it is!" Asuka replied. "Unit 02 has the latest fortified armor, an advanced model progressive knife, and the integral shoulder spike launcher, the first weapon ever to be mounted directly on an Evangelion unit's body! It's the very first of the production type, and..." Kensuke leaned forward expectantly as the EVA pilot outlined her machine's features, "it looks really, really cool!"

"I still say Unit 00's better," Kensuke objected, after reeling in his fanboyism. "It's already sortied against two Angels, and directly defeated one of them."

"While sustaining extreme amounts of damage," Rei objected, causing her friend to blink. "And Unit 00 is markedly inferior to even the test-type in performance and offensive capability, though I am unsure of how the test-type matches up against the production model."

"Well, I know, the production model beats it!" Asuka said, assuredly, just as the deck beneath them shook. Quickly, all of the children charged out of the cargo area and to a rail. "It looks like I get to prove it!" The Second Child grinned, as they saw a large shape carve its way through the water, smashing into, and through, one of the carrier fleet's tender vessels. "Come on, let's go!"

The First Child and the military otaku followed Asuka down a set of stairs and to a locker, where she pulled out several bright red plug suits and tossed two of them at the others. "What is our course of action?" Rei asked, looking dubiously down at her suit.

"We're going to fight the Angel, and you two are coming with me," Asuka replied.

Kensuke looked like Christmas had come early, even though his first gift was a pair of black socks as he looked down at the plugsuit in his hands. That was, of course, until Rei reached over and removed it from them. "Huh?" he asked, confused.

"NERV subsidiary regulation 22141-C, Kensuke Aida is not allowed within one meter of an Entry Plug except in the direst of emergencies," Rei stated, deadpan. "Please report to the main deck and return to the carrier."

As Kensuke left the area, climbing back up the stairs, Asuka looked at the other girl strangely while removing her dress. "You made that up, didn't you?"

Rei said nothing.

HR.

"All right, let's do this," Asuka said, beginning to start up her Evangelion, and trying her best to ignore the fact that Rei was sitting on her lap. When she had decided to take the others out in Unit 02, she really hadn't thought the seating arrangements through, and was suddenly rather glad that Kensuke wasn't around at the moment. Running through the activation sequence quickly in German, the Evangelion roared to life, and its pilot grinned, suddenly able to forget her rather uncomfortable position in the rush.

As Unit 02 stood to its feet, incidentally taking off the roof of its cargo bay and causing the ship it was on to buckle slightly in the middle, a voice came through the comm line to the entry plug. "Unit 02? Asuka?"

"Yep! I'm ready to kick some Angel butt!" the redhead exclaimed, determined.

"Right," the voice on the other end muttered. "Just remember, the geniuses in Germany outfitted Unit 02 with Type B equipment, and it doesn't work underwater."

"Not a problem!" the redhead said, before the machine leapt off of the cargo transport, landing a second later on the rear deck of a destroyer. Rei was rather grateful that she hadn't eaten much for lunch, as her natural vertigo was made about ten times worse by the small amount of synchronization that she had with the Evangelion.

When her world stopped trying to spin itself 180 degrees, the First Child found Unit 02 standing on the deck of the aircraft carrier, its battery power timer having stopped with the addition of the ship's power. She didn't say anything as Asuka removed her 'advanced progressive knife' which looked like nothing so much as the box cutter that Ranma had used four years ago when all of her possessions had been moved from her old apartment to the Saotome-Akagi residence.

Asuka's first few strikes were rather impressive, inflicting at least superficial damage on the Angel, what appeared to be a giant manta-ray crossed with a dolphin. That all ended when the creature apparently got a running start, leaping out of the water and landing on top of the Evangelion and the carrier. Staggering backwards, the EVA hit the edge of the flight deck, one foot coming down on an aircraft elevator, which snapped, dumping both it and its opponent into the water.

HR.

"Damn it," Ranma cursed, as Unit 02 began sinking rapidly, and the power cable on the deck began spooling out. "I don't even know why the hell an Angel's even here, let alone how to beat it with an almost inoperable EVA."

The pigtailed Operations Officer didn't notice a rather guilty look flickering across the face of Misato Katsuragi, as the woman stood at the back of the bridge, next to the ship's commander. When the man started to look smug and open his mouth, she grabbed his shoulder. "I wouldn't," she warned. "Her punches dent steel."

The captain scoffed, right before the redhead growled in irritation, bringing her hand down on one of the window ledges, and causing a noticeable buckling in the frame just as Kensuke ran into the room.

"What's going on?" the boy asked, running up to a window with his camera. "Where's Unit 02?"

"Down at the bottom by now," Ranma grumbled, her mind still racing to try and find a plan, though unfortunately, she'd always had a bit of a distaste for underwater operations, and hadn't studied them as well as she perhaps should have. Resolving to get some naval warfare manuals as soon as this was over, she said, "At least you and Rei are still up here."

"Actually..." Kensuke started, looking nervous.

Ranma's face went white for a moment, and Misato walked up next to her, noting that her mouth was moving in a continuous mutter. "They can't move, and we don't have anything that can get them up, so..." The pigtailed martial artist stopped, and then continued, "So... what?"

"Oh man, they're gunna be fish food!" Kensuke shouted, panic visible in his eyes.

"Wait a second..." Misato suddenly said, looking between Kensuke and the wound out power cable that was sitting on the deck. "Fish food, fishing..." She started grinning like an idiot. "I've got an idea."

HR.

Captain Katsuragi, Rei thought, was insane. Granted, she had been a part of at least one ridiculously risky plan already, but at the moment that didn't really matter to her, as there were two massive battleships sinking towards her at great speed, and she was stuck under water in a nearly useless Evangelion that was not Unit 00. At the moment, she would much prefer her Unit's constant attempts to pull free of her control to the sort-of synchronization she was currently going through, especially as Asuka's desperate thought impulse to get the EVA's hands to move was starting to make her twitch her fingers.

Frowning, the First Child decided to try and do what she'd been avoiding ever since she'd gotten into the Machine. She knew that any attempts on her part to pilot the EVA would just interfere with Asuka's control, but at the moment Asuka's control was getting them almost nowhere. Closing her eyes, she fell into a light meditative state, waiting for the start of Asuka's next movement command. When it hit, she threw all of her own will behind similar instructions, and it happened.

For just a moment, she felt as though she were piloting Unit 00 again, right down to the Evangelion's mind not particularly liking her presence. "Open up, you bastard!" she found herself screaming, along with Asuka, as Unit 02 began prying the sixth Angel's mouth open, floating free just as the two ships flashed past it on either side.

HR.

"Um, hi Ritsuko," Misato Katsuragi said, uncertainly, as she walked up behind the brunette, who was going over the data in Unit 02's data recorders.

"Misato," the scientist replied, apparently absorbed in her work. The purple haired woman considered reaching over and pressing the power off button to get her attention, but she had no idea what her relationship with Ritsuko was after all these years, and she wasn't sure if it would be as friendly, if mildly uncomfortable, as that with Ranma had turned out. Especially since the other woman was actually capable of holding a grudge.

Looking over at Ranma, she saw that she was standing in front of Asuka, dressing her down for bringing another pilot into her EVA during a combat situation. Misato would stop her, except she had a point, and it wasn't exactly her place to step on the Strategic Operations Officer's toes.

"This is amazing," Ritsuko finally said, bringing the other woman's attention back to her.

"What is?" Misato asked, worriedly.

"Asuka and Rei, near the end of the fight..." the brunette shook her head. "Their combined synchronization ratio hit ninety-five percent."

"That breaks both of their best records, doesn't it?" Misato asked, surprised.

"Yes, and Rei's by a lot," Ritsuko nodded. Misato was about to comment, when a man in a black suit approached her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Ma'am, Commander Ikari wished to see you," he reported, before turning and walking away.

"Right," Misato sighed, her expression immediately turning pensive as she followed.

END.

Well folks, the Freaky Fish Guy has been vanquished, and...

Mako Tsunami: I AM NOT A FREAKY FISH GUY!

Ahem... I was talking about Gaghiel. Anyhow, he's been defeated, Misato and Asuka have arrived, and the Penguin is busily preparing his seat of power for after the world domination scheme inevitably succeeds. Don't forget to R&R, and read next time, where there'll be Service!

Disclaimer: All mentions of Service in an Evangelion preview are probably lies. Haven't you guys learned anything? :)


	9. Chapter 6G4AG2: Canned Ham

Hello. Here's yet another chapter for this fic, but unfortunately more new ones may come fewer and farther between from now on. Weebee has just gained employment, and the shifts manage to line up in such a way that he'll be at work during the entire time Jonakhensu's around on weekdays. This means we've only got weekends to write. We're sorry about the inconveniance.

Chapter Octarine: Canned Ham.

Misato Katsuragi was in desperate need of a drink, and a shower. Knowing what most people did about her, plus the fact that she'd just been on an aircraft carrier for a week and a half, you would assume that the drink was the higher priority. This wasn't the case, as she'd just gotten through speaking to Gendo Ikari, and delivering to him a very special piece of cargo.

She'd sooner stab the thing, repeatedly, with a progressive knife, but unfortunately that would blow things rather spectacularly, and leave her no closer to finding answers to some very important questions than she had been when she started.

Looking up from where her dark thoughts had drawn her gaze to the floor as she'd walked, the purple haired woman blinked. She was currently standing in a steel grey corridor with some numbers on one wall and a forked intersection before her. "Which way do I go?" she muttered, wishing that she'd paid more attention when the Section 2 spook had lead her down to the commander's office.

Taking a calming breath, she stepped forward and turned right, as she was right handed. When after five minutes she'd encountered an emergency escape hatch, two janitorial closets and a lift with four security locks on it but no up escalator, she was starting to get worried. When the male voice called "Where the hell am I now?" She was in much agreement with its owner, and quickly ran down the hall, turning down a side corridor, to find a man of about her age staring around in confusion.

Seeing Misato, the man's eyes lit up. "Can you tell me how to get back to Tokyo-3?" he asked, curiously.

Misato considered admitting that she was just as lost as the random lost guy, but several things about him stopped her from doing so. For one, he was wearing some tattered adventurer's gear that had a lot of mud and dust on it, and for another, he looked stupidly strong. He probably wasn't allowed down here, so she should at least try and get him out. "Okay, let's go," she said, vowing to call security at the first communications panel she could find, as she doubted that her cell would get any reception near the base of a pyramid under a Geofront.

The two didn't make much conversation as they continued through the corridors for the next ten minutes, though Misato noted that the person she was leading attempted to walk into a wall on more than one occasion. "We're lost, aren't we?" he asked, as they encountered a set of letters and numbers written on a wall that they'd seen several times before.

"No, I know exactly where I'm going!" Misato objected, nervously, though she only got a steady look from the man.

"I'm an expert on getting lost," he deadpanned. "We're lost."

"Okay, fine, we're lost!" the woman yelled, crossing her arms. "I don't see you giving any suggestions on where to go."

The man shook his head, and was about to speak when a door behind the purple haired woman slid open, and his face turned white. Curious, Misato turned to see Ritsuko standing in what was apparently an unmarked elevator, Rei standing next to her.

"Oh, um, hi Ritsuko," Misato said, nervously waving. She was about to address the First Child as well, when the man behind her spoke.

"Ah! It's one of them! It's gunna eat my soul!" he yelled, before screaming quite like a stuck pig and running... straight into, and through, a wall.

"Damn it Ryoga..." Ritsuko muttered, as Misato gaped at the hole in the wall, noting the telltale twisted spars of a formerly re-enforced concrete structure. "Did he tell you where he was going this time?" Seeing that her question gained no response, the scientist waved her hand in front of Misato's face.

"He wanted to get back to Tokyo-3," the other woman said, rather airily.

"He probably wishes to spar with Ranma-san again," Rei observed. "Though I wonder why he reacted to me so violently."

"Aren't you worried that he just charged into a random room in the secured section of your base?" Misato asked, incredulously.

"Take a look," Ritsuko shrugged, and Misato peered into the hole to see a darkened room that appeared to be an isolation chamber, the only other way out being a large, secured vault-like door. The bandanna-clad man was nowhere to be found.

"But how the... wha...?" the Katsuragi woman sputtered, inarticulately, as Ritsuko and Rei walked past her into the room.

"Please leave now," the brunette threw over her shoulder. "Until the construction crews fix it, this is a restricted corridor."

"Hubba-wha?" the purple haired woman said, before Rei stepped back towards her, gently turning her and guiding her to the elevator before punching the button for the ground floor.

HR.

"I think I lost her," Ryoga Hibiki gasped, as he came to rest in a darkened room, actually bending forward and panting for breathe. He'd run quite quickly, not really caring what was in his way, so he hoped that he hadn't done any property damage as he fled.

As he heard a voice, he looked up to see that the room contained five men, each silhouetted by a different coloured light. "Ikari seems to believe that all of us are idiots," the voice he had heard was saying. "The Angel attacked the carrier group due to the fact that it was transferring Adam."

"Yes, well, what should we do about it? We can't very well assault NERV at a stage this early," another man replied.

"We leave him to hang, for now," the first man, a grey haired one who wore some form of visor over his eyes, replied. "His attempts to deny it should be interesting, and even he isn't fool enough to cause the Third Impact before the Angels have been defeated and cannot interfere."

"Um... huh?" Ryoga asked, and suddenly the grey haired man's line of sight shot towards him.

"What the hell?" the man barked, glaring at the Hibiki.

"Um, I'm sorry, but can anyone tell me how to get back to Tokyo-3?" the lost boy asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Who's there?" another of the men at the table asked, seeming to look right through Ryoga.

"There's a security breech on my end," the apparent leader grumbled. "Ending connection." As he said that, the others vanished, apparently some form of illusion. The second they were gone he yelled "Guards!" and a door opened, bathing the room with light.

Ryoga looked between the rather angry old man and the assault team who were silhouetted in the doorway before making a decision.

He was going to run like hell.

Again.

And so he did.

HR.

"All right, Rei. Just relax and breathe deeply, this will be over in a minute," Ritsuko said, as she sat at a computer terminal, doing her damnedest to ignore the very organic brain-like construct that was suspended above the middle of the room. She knew full well that Rei was very familiar with the routine, but the meaningless statements at least made her feel better.

Every time she came into the Dummy System room, she had to remind herself that she was not only ensuring that Rei might be saved in the event of a disaster, but that one day, hopefully soon, Evangelion units wouldn't need pilots for operation, and that insurance policy wouldn't be as necessary.

Finding herself once again staring at things she shouldn't, this time the creepily smiling empty clone bodies, she jerked her eyes back to her console, just as it gave a notification that a large anomaly in the pattern had been detected. Curious, she punched up the segment, and blinked. "Rei, are you feeling all right?" she asked.

"I am fine, Doctor," the First Child said, evenly from the LCL filled tube she floated in at the center of the room.

"You're not angry at something?" Ritsuko pressed.

"I am mildly irritated at the repetitive nature of this procedure," the blue haired girl replied, honestly.

"I see," the brunette muttered, mildly disturbed. Rei rarely ever complained about anything. She would present counter arguments when she felt you were being impractical, but she knew what the Dummy testing was for, which meant that she did it with no complaint, usually. Rei developing a backbone wasn't, by any means, a terrible thing, but it was unusual.

Looking back on the two weeks since her last pattern upload, nothing had really happened to her of any note, aside from the combined synchronization with Asuka.

"Note to self, never let her synchronize with Shinji," the doctor muttered, wondering if the Berserker state or blind fear would be the worst outcome.

"What did you say, Dr. Akagi?" Rei asked, curiously.

"Oh, nothing." Ritsuko replied, quickly tapping in the commands to end the session. This data would likely be useless for the Dummy System, but she did have a report to write.

HR.

"Well, here's the place," Misato announced, spreading out her arms to encompass the front of the apartment building that she was standing in front of.

"It doesn't look that bad," Asuka, who was standing next to her holding Pen-pen, chipped in. "But why'd you pick one on the edge of the city like this?"

"A lot of NERV staff live here," Misato said, shrugging. "Most of the main shift, actually, according to the person who recommended the place." Seeing Asuka's dubious expression, she finally admitted, "And... we get a discount."

"Aha! So you're being a cheapskate again." the redhead said, nodding assuredly.

"Just for that, you're dragging up the luggage," Misato said, irritably. She was planning on walking into the building, then turning around to help her charge in, but her plan was stopped half way through as she heard a male voice answering the Second Child's indignant shout.

"That ain't very nice, is it Misato?" Turning, she saw Ranma, in his male form and having changed into a NERV duty uniform, picking up some boxes. "This how you normally treat her?"

"Oh yeah, she's horrible!" Asuka replied, resting the penguin on the ground and grabbing a box herself. The animal toddled forward, and looked up at the pigtailed man inquisitively.

"Wark?" it asked, actually managing to look confused, before it raised one flipper saying "Wark!" in an assured tone.

"He likes you," the girl observed.

"Well, so long as he's not a cat," Ranma replied, reaching down and shaking the bird's flipper. He contemplated asking if it had ever been to Jusenkyo, but then chided himself for starting to think like Rei. "Anyhow, I'll help you with this stuff. You two the new tenants on the third floor I got called about?"

"Wait, you're running this place?" Misato asked, looking at Ranma in shock.

"Me 'n Ritsuko, why?" he replied, walking past her and towards the elevator with six boxes piled in front of his face.

She was about to mutter about show-offs, when she caught on the last statement. "Why you two together? Don't you get enough of each other at work?"

"Um, Misato..." Ranma said, deciding to wait until after the other two stepped into the elevator with him, and he could stick his head past the pile of boxes to get a good look at them. "Ritsuko and I've been married since about a year after college."

"You... what?" Misato asked, suddenly dropping the box she'd been holding, which landed on Pen-Pen and elicited a cry of outrage.

Not seeming to notice Asuka's cooing over their pet, the Katsuragi woman's mind raced. It did sort of make sense, in a sick sort of way. She'd been pretty sure that after she left, Ranma... wouldn't have taken it well, given how he'd reacted when Akane had come to the campus grounds and screamed at him for about an hour and a half. She remembered the way he'd clung to her and cried until he'd gone to sleep the night after.

The word 'Fragile' was a little too light a term to describe Ranma Saotome's emotional state when he latched onto someone, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

The big surprise was Ritsuko. Of course, if she were willing to try out her cereal box psyche degree, she was willing to admit that the other woman's rabid obsession with all things feline meant that she wanted to care for someone or something, an ailurophobe wasn't exactly what you'd expect. Unless it'd been Neko-Ranma, of course.

"Are you awake over there?" Asuka demanded, jolting her caretaker out of her thoughts. Blinking, Misato noted that the elevator door was open, and Ranma had already left. Asuka was looking in at her curiously, while Pen-pen limped down the hall, dragging a clearly perfectly functional flipper behind him and making pitiful noises. "It's like this guy being married is some big deal. I thought you liked Saotome-san? Though I will admit he's pretty cute for an older guy."

"Asuka," Misato groaned. "Just... never mind."

HR.

"Did I miss a memo?" Asuka Langley-Soryu asked, as she stood on the sidewalk in front of the apartment building, staring at Shinji and Rei.

"Excuse me?" the First Child asked, confused. "No memos have been issued to pilots as of the last seven days."

The Second Child rolled her eyes. "Right," she said, turning her gaze from the girl in the wrong uniform to the boy in the right one. "This is the Third Child, right? Misato said we'd walk to school together."

"Yeah, I'm Shinji," the boy nodded. "It's good to meet you."

Asuka nodded back, though in her head she was lamenting the fact that all of the guys she'd met so far were either way too old or kind of pathetic looking. The three began walking after that, and thoughts about her new school began speeding through the German's head.

She considered asking the other two about what the place was like, but she really didn't want to seem uncertain of things in front of the other pilots. It was stupid, anyways. She'd already graduated from a university in her home country, but Misato had put her foot down about going to school here. Asuka briefly thought uncharitable thoughts about what her guardian would do with all of the spare time, but shook them off. While Misato was irresponsible sometimes, she was never that bad, and she'd left the building at the same time Asuka had in order to head to NERV.

The redhead briefly let herself relax with the thought that, no matter how bad school today would be, she would have a synchronization test later on, and would be able to show how great a pilot she was.

A while later, when she reached the school, she sighed in relief to see that Rei's fashion choice wasn't echoed by all of the other girls. Though it didn't much matter to her, sticking out in such a way would still be pretty embarrassing. Still, it appeared that she was noticed, or at least her group was, as almost everyone in the yard stopped their conversation to look over at them for a few moments.

Shinji and Rei didn't seem to notice this, heading into the school without comment, though next to them Asuka could hear some whispers from the crowd.

"Do you think she's one of them?"

"Nah, she looks too healthy."

"Kinda cute, though."

"Then why's she with them?"

"Really short bodyguard?"

"Maybe she's just a new transfer or something."

"Why the hell would anyone want to come here?"

"Lost a bet?"

"Must've been a pre..." Asuka's hearing of the last words was cut off as they finally entered the building.

Seeing the redhead's disturbed look, Shinji actually tried to comfort her. "They acted pretty much like that when I showed up, too," he offered. "At least they aren't mobbing you."

"They mobbed you?" Asuka asked, surprised.

"A few wanted autographs," Shinji couldn't help but laugh at that. "Someone asked me if they could bear my child."

"...you're kidding, right?" Asuka asked, deadpan.

"Nope," Shinji replied. At Asuka's disbelieving expression, he muttered "Gee, thanks," and entered their classroom.

HR.

Asuka sighed in relief almost as soon as the entry plug settled in place, and the lights stopped flickering around her. The last weeks hadn't exactly been relaxing for her, after the hurried packing when leaving Germany, the travel to Japan in the carrier's fleet, and the fact that her classmates were just plain weird.

She'd only really made friends with one of them, other than the pilots, and that was the class rep who was crushing on the tall guy in the track suit so hard it was mind blowingly obvious.

Still, she was now back in her Evangelion, somewhere familiar to her. As one of the technicians called her up and reported her synch ratio, she smiled. As she'd suspected, she was better than both Ayanami and Ikari. She briefly considered opening up a communications line to the other Children who were testing on either side of her and gloating, but shot the idea down.

Though Shinji was painfully shy when it came to anything other than giving basic information, and Rei's rebuke regarding the camera geek still smarted, they hadn't done anything to antagonize her, even if she was willing to admit that that was probably because they hadn't really done anything at all.

"Very good, Asuka," the voice of Dr. Akagi, a rather stiff and formal sounding woman whom she'd only met when coming in for this synch test, spoke over the comm link. "Please continue the way you have been."

"Of course," Asuka said confidently, before Ritsuko closed the channel and turned to the person she could pretty well feel behind her.

"I'm impressed, she isn't a booze-hound," she quipped, bringing a twitching eye from Misato Katsuragi.

"Just how irresponsible do you think I am?" the other woman demanded, forgetting for the moment that she'd decided to try and be diplomatic towards the scientist until she figured out why the heck she'd married Ranma.

"Remember exactly how we and Ranma met?" Ritsuko asked, smiling slightly as she turned back to look over the pilots' synchronization data.

Misato's eyebrow twitched again. "So, I see you've picked up some bad habits from him since you two got hitched," she said, deciding that Ritsuko had fired the first volley.

The brunette sighed, punching in a command to transmit Rei's synchronization data to her home system, as it was showing an interesting anomaly, before turning to her old friend again. "I've just learned that some situations don't require me to be as diplomatic," she shrugged. "It's kind of liberating, actually."

"Ritsuko Akagi loosening up?" Misato asked, actually starting to smile. "I thought we were trying to avoid Third Impact, not herald it." Noting that the other woman wasn't going to respond to that, NERV's newest security division member finally sighed in defeat. "So... how did it happen?" she asked, reluctantly.

"You don't want to know," Ritsuko said, shaking her head.

Misato noted the slight emphasis on the word "You" in that statement, not quite enough to be accusatory, but enough to indicate that Ritsuko was probably right. "How's Asuka's synchronization looking?" she finally asked, uncomfortably.

Ritsuko muttered something slightly too low for Misato to hear, before typing in the commands that brought up the Second Child's readings and beginning to report.

HR.

"So..." Aoba muttered, as he sat at his console, re-arranging the alert windows to pass the time.

"Hmm?" Maya asked, her head turning towards the other tech quickly enough that it was obvious she was looking for something to do. It had been a week since the Second Child had arrived, and the excitement of settling her and her Evangelion in had quickly given way to what was considered normal around Central Dogma.

That was, mind-numbing boredom with the occasional few hours of mind-numbing terror. At this point the normally passive woman was almost wishing for the Commander and the Captain to start one of their occasional verbal sparring matches, or even for an angel to poke its head out so that they could send the Evangelions to shoot it off.

"Are you going to say something?" Hyuga asked, turning his attention from trying to track the IFF codes of various aircraft flying near the fortress city to throw an irritated look at the long-haired man.

"I was just wondering, you guys want to go to Ucchan's for supper after work? I'll buy," the other said, evenly.

"You never buy," Hyuga objected. "What's the catch?"

"Oh, nothing," Aoba shrugged. "I just went in there earlier this week and noticed a pretty interesting new waitress."

"A threat to Shinji?" Maya asked, worried for the Third Child, who she knew also worked there in some capacity.

For some reason, Aoba snickered. "Nah, but she's definitely interesting to look at," he replied.

"Aoba..." Maya growled, irritably. "If this is one of those jokes, I'll..."

"Do absolutely nothing, I've seen you in self-defense class," Aoba replied, shrugging. "Besides, I meant she was interesting for reasons other than appearance, especially since she's fourteen."

"Oh," Maya muttered, blushing and turning back to her console just in time to note a strange reading in the waters surrounding the island. It was probably a sensor error, but she could hear Hyuga snickering from his console now, and didn't want to look away from her screen. Focusing several sonar installations and one of NERV's observation aircraft on the anomaly, her eyes widened as it gained definition.

"Possible Angel detected!" she said, passing her data to the others' consoles.

"You've got to be..." Aoba started, before he received the sensor information and cursed. Hyuga didn't even bother to say anything, sounding the alarms, as the Seventh Angel had apparently arrived.

END.

OMAKE OMAKE! WARNING! WARNING! OMAKE!

"Just for that, you're dragging up the Luggage," Misato said, irritably.

"But it tried to bite me last time," Asuka whined, looking suspiciously back at the large, wooden chest that had been hurriedly dropped out of the delivery van, all of the rest of their boxes having disappeared into it.

It burped.


	10. Chapter 32: A Balanced Diet

Chapter 3 squared: A Balanced Diet.

Kozo Fuyutsuki stood at the top level of Central Dogma's control room, wondering if he'd said something earlier to piss off whatever deity was sending the Angels. He'd assumed that his short stint as the commander of NERV would be uneventful, as commander Ikari went to argue with the U.N, again, and look over the nearly complete EVA Units in the States.

Of course, that had been before the monitor techs had hit the alarm for an Angel attack, and he had bolted out of Gendo's surprisingly cushy chair , almost being knocked over by the blur that was the Strategic Operations Officer as he entered the control room.

"The Angel is still slightly off the coast, and the military has sent a request that we intercept before it enters the city," Hyuga reported, as the main screen flickered on, revealing an angel that looked like a half moon with a human body attached at the center of the inner edge.

"The pilots?" Ranma asked, as he looked over the monster quizzically.

"Agent Katsuragi just picked them up," Maya reported. "They're proceeding to the cages as quickly as possible."

"Commander, do we accept the military's request?" Ranma asked, looking up to Fuyutsuki, who caught himself, for a moment, wondering where his nickname was.

"It would be best to keep damage to the city down, prepare the deployment aircraft and one of the auxiliary power units," the grey haired man finally decided, and the crew began to work.

HR.

"What in the world's TAKING so long?" Asuka Langley Soryu grumbled to herself, as she and Shinji sat in their entry plugs. Much to her annoyance, the third child almost looked relaxed, waiting patiently.

"It's best if we wait for them to finish preparations," he said, and then shuddered. "We don't want to go up against one of those things blind."

"Our EVAs are more than a match for anything those angels can throw at us, especially Unit 02," Asuka snorted. Shinji didn't respond, merely rubbing his chest almost unconsciously, before the EVAs jolted into motion, the aircraft they were hooked to lifting into the air.

"ETA to drop is 5 minutes," the transport's pilot announced, as the low lighting of the almost powered down entry plugs was brightened by an image of the outside world passing below them, first the city, then grassland surrounding it, and then the coast line.

"All right, pilots," Asuka was jolted out of her observation of the landscape as the man she'd seen a week before at the apartment building appeared on the screen. "When you drop, hook up to the umbilicals and monitor the angel. Fire a few warning shots if it doesn't move, but don't engage at close range until we get some more data. Asuka, follow Shinji's lead on this one."

"What?" the redhead yelped, shocked. "Are you insane? I should go in first to show what Unit 02 can do! Besides, it is the more powerful unit!" Stopping for a second and grinning sheepishly, she muttered, "No offense, Shinji."

"Shinji's more experienced in land combat against the angels," Ranma countered. "Don't worry, you'll get your swing at it."

"Yeah, whatever," Asuka grumbled, as the channel closed, Unit 02 falling forward and down, hitting the ground several moments later and heading for the forward base.

HR.

"It still seems to be ignoring us," Aoba muttered, as he watched intently along with the rest of the control team, the two Evangelions standing on the shoreline and firing pallet rifles at the approaching form of the Angel.

"Aren't they negating its AT Field?" Ranma asked, irritably.

"This Angel has a rather strong field, and I'm detecting what almost looks like two patterns nested within each other," Ritsuko reported.

"So... it's got two cores?" Hyuga speculated, as Asuka lowered her rifle on screen and a frustrated grunt was heard.

"This isn't doing anything!" the German pilot grumbled.

"Well, it hasn't fired back yet," Shinji offered, uncertainly.

"That's because it doesn't think we're a threat," Asuka shot back. "Whoever's back there, let me engage it in close combat!"

"Out in the middle of the bay like that?" Ranma asked. "Your maneuverability might be compromised."

"Yeah, well fighting around all those submerged buildings is supposed to be a lot better for the surroundings than doing it on land, right?" the red haired German returned. "Besides, remember what happened with the last Angel?"

Ranma wanted to retort that she had gotten herself eaten, but then, that had been in the middle of the ocean, rather than water that would come up to the EVAs' chests. "All right, grab the Progressive Naginata. Shinji, cover her."

"Yes sir," Shinji said immediately, as Asuka smiled gleefully, running back to camp for her weapon.

"All right," she said, testing the pole-arm's weight in her EVA's hands, "I'm ready, now let's show 'em what we can do!"

"Um, are you talking to me?" Shinji asked, right before Asuka charged past him, vaulting onto one of the buildings that was sticking out of the water. He immediately started a stream of covering fire, actually holding down the trigger and sort of counting on the smoke to help conceal Asuka's approach. It did its work, as a bolt of energy fired wildly at the rapidly closing Evangelion, but just managed to blow a crater in the shoreline behind her.

"Take this, the sword that cleaves evil!" the Second Child yelled, causing some strange looks to go around in Central Dogma, and Misato, who had just arrived, to palm her face. Still, the strike landed, and Asuka smirked as the Angel split down the middle. "Yeah, that's how you do it!" she yelled, lifting her weapon into the air in victory.

Her celebration was interrupted a second later, as Maya's panicked voice echoed in her ears. "Blue pattern is still active!"

"What?" Ranma said, biting back a curse. "Asuka, pull back!" Unfortunately, it was too late. Somehow, the Angel's two halves had regenerated into two slightly smaller, but whole versions of it, and grabbed the red EVA by both feet. Its pilot squawked indignantly, just as twin sets of laser eyes burned down her legs, and she was thrown all the way across the bay to land head first in the Angel's previous shot's crater. "Ow," she groaned, before she heard a shout of "Shinji!" and something hit the ground near her crater. That was all she knew before her world went black.

HR.

"Yes, of course, Minister," Kozo Fuyutsuki said, in as ingratiating a fashion as he could, actually breaking a pen into tinier and tinier pieces with the hand that wasn't holding the phone. "NERV regrets the damage that was done, but we had no... Yes, of course... I understand." At this point, he started flicking the bits of pen off of Gendo's desk. "Sir, I'm afraid I've got to go to the after action briefing now. I will be sure to pass on your sentiments."

The grey haired man didn't even let the official on the other end of the line finish his statement, as he slammed the phone down and got out of the chair. No doubt the minister for the environment would be rather angry at him, but given he'd already been yelled at by the prime minister and a U.N. delegate, he wasn't terribly inclined to care.

"Damn it, Gendo, you planned this didn't you?" he grumbled, heading for the door and doing his damnedest to control his irritation. He'd been doing his best to play 'good cop' to his superior's 'bad cop' for the past decade or so, and didn't particularly want that image ruined now because he couldn't hold his temper.

His resolution was put rather quickly to the test as he entered the conference room, a split screen image of Units 01 and 02, both somehow sticking up straight out of the ground, making his eyebrow twitch. "The United Nations mobilized after the neutralization of the Evangelions, dropping an N2 device on the Angel. Unfortunately, this didn't completely destroy it, and it has erected an AT shield around its body that prevents them from doing it again.

"How long until it can get moving again?" Ranma asked, casting worried looks between the two EVA pilots, who hadn't said anything since they had been recovered other than to confirm that they were all right.

"We're assuming about ten days, and that's if the Angel prioritizes defensive repairs over the ability to move. If it doesn't, maybe seven?" Maya reported.

"And the EVAs?" Fuyutsuki cut in, and everyone turned towards him, surprised.

"About nine days," Ritsuko said almost automatically. "There was massive damage to their spinal cords from..." She stopped, pointing somewhat sheepishly at the screen.

"So we've got nine days to come up with a way to stop this thing," Ranma grumbled. "Any ideas?"

"Send an EVA in with an N-2 mine?" Aoba suggested.

"And have it blow itself up when it's using its AT Field to nullify the Angel's?" Hyuga shook his head.

"We'll review the logs later," Ranma decided. "Shinji, Asuka, any comments?"

"No, sir," Shinji said, still staring at the tabletop. Asuka didn't say anything, only glaring at her own section of the table so hard that Ranma thought it was likely to burst into flames.

"Look, you two did as well as could be expected," the strategic operations officer said. "Remember, the EVAs have taken worse damage in engagements, and we couldn't have seen the splitting thing coming."

"Yes, sir," Shinji just repeated, as Asuka continued to glare.

Ranma frowned. "You can go," he decided, hoping that this wasn't going to end like the last time Shinji just kept repeating 'yes, sir,' and making a mental note to warn Misato that her charge was apparently trying to kill things with her mind.

When the two pilots had left, heading for the changing rooms, recordings of the battle were distributed, and the rest of the group disbanded, save Fuyutsuki, who stood at the door waiting for Ranma to pass by. When the captain attempted to do so, the older man gave a curt nod and began to walk.

Ranma sighed, knowing what was probably coming, and fell in beside him. After several moments of uncomfortable silence, Ranma decided that he may as well cause the explosion rather than wait for it. "Well?" he asked, quietly.

The sub-commander didn't actually use this opening to start yelling, only turning towards the other slowly. "I need you to handle some of the paperwork from the last attack," he said, simply.

Ranma blinked. "Huh?"

"I'm currently handling Commander Ikari's usual duties, and the government is rather... displeased with NERV at the moment so that is a full time job. I will need you to take up my usual load until the commander returns." Fuyutsuki explained.

Ranma gaped for a moment. "You're assigning me paperwork with an Angel preparing to attack in a week?"

Fuyutsuki nodded. "I'm afraid you're going to have to pull double duty or delegate. And I don't mean the paperwork, it's technically above your security clearance, so no getting Lieutenant Hyuga to do it."

"How about Ibuki?" Ranma asked, faking hopefulness.

Fuyutsuki actually smiled slightly. "Only if you like the idea of being court martialed," he said, off-hand, before turning to return to Gendo's office.

HR.

"Idiot!" Asuka shouted, as she smacked a fist into a locker so hard that she caused a dent and ended up cradling the hand as a sharp twinge of pain ran up it "How could I have been such an idiot?" She had wanted to show everyone how powerful her Unit 02 was, and how good she was at piloting it, and she'd shown them, all right. She'd shown them how easily she could be defeated by the first Angel she'd run across without someone else in the entry plug, 'helping' her.

"Damn it," she mumbled, crumpling to the bench in the middle of the room, angrily pulling on the top to her school uniform. Granted, Shinji hadn't done any better than she had in the fight against the splitting angel, but then, despite the several kills he'd racked up so far, he was an almost untrained wimp with self-esteem issues she could probably see from Germany.

The red haired girl considered trying to punch something again, but as her hand reminded her rather strongly that punching metal was a bad idea, and she didn't really dislike anyone around here enough to punch them, she just stood, heading towards the door to the female changing room and slamming it so hard on her way out that it reverberated satisfyingly down the hall.

"Hmm, well, you're not in trouble." The German girl spun as she heard her guardian's conversational tone from behind her, and noticed Misato leaning on the wall next to the door. "Ranma told me you might need to talk to me, and then Shinji showed up, saying something was attacking you in the changing room."

"Oh," the Second Child said, blinking. "I wasn't that loud."

Misato just walked past the younger girl, looking into the room and whistling as she noted a dent in her locker. "Yup, very subdued," she deadpanned.

Asuka didn't respond, just turning and starting down the hall. The Katsuragi woman quickly followed her, surprised that she hadn't at least gotten an embarrassed reply. Her charge had gotten angry before, but this time she seemed more sullen than anything else, acting almost like she did on the anniversary of her mother's death.

The purple haired woman didn't really need to ask what was wrong. The girl had been defeated, and was evidently taking it extremely hard. "The other pilots have taken losses too, you know." She finally broke the silence after a few moments, but only got a grunt from the other. She contemplated telling Asuka about the record tapes she'd watched of Shinji's encounter with the Third Angel, but then thought better of it, as she might decide that even someone who fell on their face and hadn't piloted an EVA before could defeat one, while she couldn't. "Sometimes it just takes a..."

"I'm fine, all right?" The red haired girl spun around to glare at her guardian. "Don't worry about me." She then ran down the hall and around a corner.

"Great job, Katsuragi," Misato muttered, following.

HR.

"How the hell did we cause the extinction of the Japanese Skink?" Ritsuko looked up at the frustrated exclamation from across the kitchen table, seeing her husband pawing through a stupidly large pile of papers.

"The what?" she asked, curiously, picking up her cup of coffee and taking a sip.

"I don't know," Ranma replied. "It seems like half of these reports are taking any opportunity to blame the last Angel battle for a bunch of things. One of them is from the weather service and says that the N2 blast could cause tidal waves, and they're apparently very displeased with us for forcing the JSSDF to drop the bomb."

"Anyone asked if we caused world hunger yet?" Ritsuko asked, actually kind of curious, only for the pigtailed man to hold up a form.

"I'm surprised sub-commander Fuyutsuki hasn't gone on a homicidal rampage with a chainsaw," he muttered, putting the paper back on the pile.

"So, with all of this I suppose you haven't had time to watch the recordings of the battle?" the scientist asked, concerned, as she caught a glimpse of the footage playing along with operational data for the two EVAs on her own computer screen.

"Yeah, I have, but the only plan I've got would involve me taking the next week to train Shinji and Asuka in group combat 'till their legs fall off," Ranma replied. "Unless we can switch Rei into Unit 02, or Unit 00's ready. Even then, they're still not really good enough to fight as closely as they'd need to."

"Rei's out," Ritsuko shook her head. "We don't have authorization for cross-compatibility tests yet, and while Unit 00's mobile again, it's got no armor to speak of." She stroked her chin for a moment, and then her eyes widened. "Wait a second, I've got an idea."

HR.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sub-commander Fuyutsuki stood behind Gendo's desk, Captain Saotome and a civilian woman standing on the other side.

"The only way I've found of accomplishing the goal is through use of extremely precise cooperative combat," Ranma said, his speech somewhat stilted, as he technically wasn't allowed to tell the woman exactly what he wanted her to do until the higher-ups gave the okay. "Since I'm occupied with other matters, I found someone who would be capable of doing it."

"And exactly what am I doing, Ran-chan," the woman asked, reaching to her chest to run a hand along a bandolier of spatulas that currently wasn't there.

"You feel this woman can do that more competently than NERV security?" the grey haired man asked, looking at the okonomiyaki chef dubiously.

"They could train 'em in all the Art they need, yeah." Ranma admitted. "But it'd take them months. Normally, goin slow's a good idea, but we sort of don't have that option here."

"Well, if you're recommending her I assume she can lift trucks and throw raw energy or something equally ridiculous," the sub-commander grumbled, wondering what Commander Ikari would do in this situation. Of course, if Ikari was here then Saotome could train the children himself and the decision wouldn't be necessary. "We can't grant her access to this facility," he finally decided. "However, we can allow the children to train with her, if they're under escort."

"Like the three guys in the apartment across the street?" Ukyo responded, deciding that she didn't much like being talked about as though she wasn't there.

"How did you..." Fuyutsuki started, before shaking his head. "Just leave, update me on the status of the operation as it proceeds."

"Yes, sir." Ranma said, saluting as he and Ukyo turned to leave.

"So, he's the Source of All Evil, huh?" the dark haired woman asked, as the office door slammed behind them. "Thought he'd be younger."

"Actually that's the sub-commander," Ranma responded. "If Commander Ikari had been here, he probably would have had one of us shot."

"Right," the okonomiyaki chef said, craning her neck as she saw some workmen moving something metallic on a dolly. "So what did you sign me up for?"

"The latest Angel splits in half when it attacks," Ranma explained. "The thing took out one EVA without even trying, then double-teamed the other one for a minute before smashing it into a hillside."

"So... what am I supposed to do about it?" Ukyo asked, confused.

"How do ya feel about pretending to be the Ol' Ghoul?" Ranma replied, an handed her a slip of paper with a few group fighting styles written on it.

"Well, I have always wanted to try balancing on a staff," she responded, and then smirked.

HR.

"So why exactly am I doing this?" Asuka grumbled, as she brushed her hair out in front of her bedroom mirror, preparing to put her hair clips in place.

Behind her, her guardian shrugged. "Ranma said it's some sort of training to prepare you for combat against the next Angel."

"Taking the week off from school to train, I get," the German girl said, "What I don't get is the job at the restaurant."

"I try not to question his training methods, it makes my head hurt," the purple haired woman admitted. "If you can explain how shoving your hands into a burning fire increases your typing speed, you'll understand the restaurant thing."

"His?" Asuka frowned. "That's been confusing me all month, I keep hearing two people called by the same name. One of them's that girl you were dating and the other one's the guy who's married to Akagi-san."

"It's, uh, you should probably ask him," Misato decided, not wanting to try and explain a Jusenkyo curse this early in the morning, though she was glad her charge was acting somewhat more normal than the day before. "Now you'd better get going, I heard Ukyo's kind of big on punctuality."

HR.

Shinji Ikari was nervous. He hadn't really approached or talked to the new pilot once,even though the three of them usually walked to school together. Now, Mrs. Ryoji was telling him that the two were working together. The girl looked about as confused as he was, but not nearly as nervous, as the okonomiyaki chef sat at a chair across one of the restaurant's many tables from the two children, looking serious.

"Shinji, Asuka," she started, withdrawing one of her many spatulas from its bandolier and tapping it on the table. "You aren't just here to act as my waitstaff, though I will be paying you for your services. What you are here to do is train. You're here to learn each other's every reaction, to do your best to understand what the other is thinking and going to do at any given moment." She suddenly flipped the spatula around in her hand, flicking it through the air between the two children in one, almost impossible to follow movement, and letting it thump into the doorpost. "You're also going to learn to watch others, to determine what they're going to do, and how you and your partner can best counter it."

Both children gulped loudly, especially as they saw their 'teacher' grow a large, rather evil grin. "Now," the older woman said, causing them both to jump. "Go and get ready."

"Yes, Ma'am!" both pilots yelped, jumping to their feet and leaving the room.

"That was kind of extreme, wasn't it?" Kaji asked, walking out from behind the griddle, where he'd been taking inventory of ingredients, and yanking the spatula out of the doorpost.

"Yeah, but I've always wanted to do it," Ukyo replied, with a sheepish grin. "After all, he told me to act like Cologne."

"Remind me to never meet this person," the brown haired man said, handing his wife back her throwing weapon.

HR.

"She's a psychopath!" Asuka yelled, as she stood in the back room of Ucchan's, clenching her fists either in anger, or in order to keep them from shaking. The Ikari boy only shrugged, as he walked over to his usual corner of the room, considering the clothing hung there. "Well, aren't you going to say something?" the girl demanded, putting her fists on her hips.

"Ukyo-san's got very good aim," the boy replied distractedly. He was in a bit of a dilemma. He wanted to wear his usual uniform, as it seemed, from the short time that he had dressed normally, that the customers prefered 'her.' It really didn't matter to him what he wore, but he was sure that Asuka would make something out of it, and he didn't exactly want to explain it, as the reason sounded kind of stupid even in his own mind.

"Are you going to get dressed, or what?" the red haired girl demanded. "I'm not going out there without you!"

Shinji nodded, grabbing his Kimono from the rack and hiding behind a few boxes of ingredients to get changed. When he stepped out, and Asuka saw him, her expression changed to confusion, bordered by amusement.

"I don't think she meant we were supposed to be this alike," she said, gesturing down at her own blue Kimono.

Shinji just blushed slightly and shrugged, and the girl was going to make another comment, when a shout of "Get out here, we're about to open!" came from outside. Completely forgetting about Shinji's state of dress, she turned and headed into the main room, the Third Child following after.

HR.

"Okay, we're here, now why'd you want us to come to lunch with you so much?" Maya Ibuki asked curiously, as she, Shigeru Aoba and Makoto Hyuga entered Ucchan's, heading for an empty table in the corner of the room.

"Hey, let's just get the free lunch and question his motives later," Hyuga responded. "I've been craving okonomiyaki for a while now."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch," Aoba said, leaning back in his seat. "But your faces are all the payment I'm going to need."

Hyuga was about to ask what the other man was talking about, when a perky female voice cut in. "Hello, may I take your order?" Looking up, he saw Asuka standing next to the table with a scratch pad in hand.

"Uh... Seafood okonomiyaki," he muttered, startled. After the others had given their orders, and the girl had turned to leave, he asked "What, am I going to find out Rei's in the kitchen next?"

"Only kitchen's the grill," Aoba pointed out. "No, what you want to look at is the other waitress over there."

Both others looked over to where the long haired man was pointing, and Hyuga spoke up again. "Hey, Ibuki, do you have a younger sister?"

"No, wh..." the female technician started, before blinking. "Shinji?"

The brown haired waitress abruptly turned from the table he'd been waiting on, looking startled at the calling of his name.

"Wow, it is him," Hyuga agreed.

"Um," The Ikari boy started, stepping a short way towards the three, before a loud SMACK was heard, followed by a crash. Whirling around, he saw Asuka on the ground, a plate of okonomiyaki precariously balanced on top of her head.

"An opening!" Ukyo's voice called from the grill, and Shinji rushed over to help his fellow pilot up, only realizing his mistake when the flat side of another throwing spatula hit him in the back of the head, sending him falling over the girl, the food being squashed against the front of his clothes.

"Damn it," the Second Child muttered, from where her face was still planted into the floor. "Get offa me, Shinji!"

"Uh, sorry," the boy in question mumbled, pulling himself to his feet and offering a hand to Asuka.

"You two can go get yourselves cleaned up," Ukyo said, having not taken advantage of any of the other openings they'd left after their first falls. "Remember, always keep an eye on your opponents!"

"Yes, Ma'am," both pilots chorused, heading for the storage room.

HR.

"I'm sorry," Asuka looked up as she heard Shinji mutter the words over the top of the crates that they'd been using for the past five days as a makeshift changing stall.

The German sighed. "Stop apologizing," she muttered, quietly. "We didn't slip up for almost a day that time."

"Yeah, but when we did, it was my fault," the brown haired boy replied, as he bent so the girl couldn't see his face.

"And last time it was my fault, remember?" It was hard for the redhead to admit, but her first combat had already been a disaster, and it was looking like her first week of training was just about as bad. "We're getting better, though." She said this almost more to reassure herself than the nearly terminally depressed boy.

"Yeah," Shinji actually sounded somewhat chearier for a moment, before reality intruded. "We're just not doing it fast enough."

"I wish they could repair our EVAs faster, so I could just go stab the thing to death while it can't move," the Second Child grumbled. Sure, it wouldn't exactly impress anyone, but it would be really cathartic.

"Well, Doctor Akagi says that both Unit 01 and 02 aren't finished with repairs yet," Shinji replied."Something about tissue regeneration, or something."

"I know," Asuka grumbled, before she blinked. "What about Unit 00?"

"Unit 00?" Shinji asked, confused.

"You know, big, orange, has one eye, piloted by that creepy roommate of yours?" the redhead clarified, exasperated.

"Rei's not creepy," Shinji shot back, immediately, only to get a disbelieving look from the girl. "Okay, maybe a little creepy. But still, Unit 00 doesn't have any armor."

"How much armor does it take to stab something that can't move in the face?" Shinji just made a rather non-committal noise, so Asuka shrugged. "Well, can't hurt to ask, at least."

HR.

Ranma felt, at the moment, like several different kinds of idiot, a few of them unknown to modern humanity. The idea was so simple, it almost hurt. The only reason they hadn't just used conventional force to neutralize the Angel the second it had been immobilized was due to its AT field, and Unit 00 was well equipped to take that down, even without any of its protective plating.

It was more than a little embarrassing that the idea to use the benched EVA had come from a fourteen year old girl who hadn't been in the city for more than a month, but it had been a reasonably good one, and after hashing out the details with Commander Ikari, who had returned the day before and wore a smug smile that put his best to shame, the operation had been approved.

"Rei, are you ready?" Ritsuko asked, as the First Child and her Evangelion were slowly raised to the surface on a massive elevator.

"Unit 00 is oddly balanced, but I can move it," the blue haired girl's calm voice came back, and Hyuga nodded.

"Her Synchronization rate is holding steady," he confirmed.

"Has the blackout been implemented?" Ranma asked, getting a slight nod from Maya. "Okay, then open the doors and let her out."

"Yes, sir," Maya returned, as the front face of a large office building in an unusually dark portion of Tokyo-3's eastern region slid away, Rei stepping out into night air that she could feel disconcertingly well through her connection to her Evangelion.

"Move quickly, but try to step lightly," Ritsuko advised, and the First Child nodded, her EVA moving carefully out of the city limits and towards the location marked on a satellite map, where the Angel was. She kept a close eye on her battery power timer as she went, having to connect to portable umbilical stations several times, but eventually came into visual range.

"Captain, there's something..." Aoba reported, looking confused. "I keep seeing something moving on the road behind Unit 00, but I can't tell what it is."

"Keep an eye out for it and send a ground team to check once Rei's done," Ranma ordered, as the Evangelion activated the progressive knife it carried in its right hand and approached the target.

As it got into Melee range, the EVA extended its AT field, it and that of the Angel meeting in a coruscating orange interference pattern before dieing out. Rei lifted her arm, taking aim at the Angel's core before a limb lashed out of the mass of healing tissue, catching her EVA in the stomach.

The blue haired girl gasped, staggering back and bringing one hand up to clutch at her stomach as the Angel began to writhe around, eventually forming into its original humanoid shape. "Rei, get out of there!" Ranma exclaimed, panicking and cursing himself for not realizing that the Angel could have healed enough to defend itself by now.

Unit 00 turned, attempting to retreat, but the Angel grabbed it by one leg, yanking brutally and pulling the biomecha towards itself. When energy began to gather in the Angel's eyes, the grey and green flesh of the EVA was fully visible for a few seconds, before energy blasts burned away at it and Rei screamed. Thrashing desperately, she managed to jerk her burned leg out of her enemy's grasp, but standing on it quickly proved useless, as the prototype Evangelion fell to its knees with a thundering crash.

"Can we deploy Unit 01?" Gendo's voice rang from the back of the room,

Ritsuko shook her head. "It would barely be able to move, and it'll take us too long to get it there."

"Sir, there's some sort of energy spike coming from Unit 00!" Aoba reported, and Ranma's eyes widened, as he saw the bleeding and battered EVA raising its arms in a rather familiar position, five fingers on each hand cupping as though to grip a basket ball.

"No way in hell," Ranma breathed, as orange energy coalesced between the biomecha's hands, and even though Rei didn't let out the usual battle cry, he recognized the beam of energy that smashed into the center of the Angel's chest, sending it flying back several hundred meters.

"Was that...?" Ritsuko asked, looking back at her husband, who nodded shakily. Her attention was quickly drawn back to her terminal screen, where she saw the pilot's sync ratio climbing dramatically. Her eyes widened as she realized what that meant and reached for the entry plug eject leaver, but it was too late as Unit 00 gave a bellow of rage, charging at its opponent in a peculiar three legged gate, using its arms and one working leg.

The Seventh Angel had no time to recover, as it was descended upon by a whirlwind of flashing teeth, claws, and a brightly glowing AT field. Gendo shot out of his seat as he realized what the prototype Evangelion was doing. "Shut it down! Eject the entry plug and shut it down!" he ordered, almost sounding panicked.

"We can't! It's rejecting the commands!" Hyuga shouted back, after several seconds of frantic typing.

"Try them again," the commander barked, and the crew continued rapidly inputting orders which the EVA blithely ignored, until its battery countdown, which had been ticking since before it had engaged the angel, hit zero, the massive biomecha falling forward into the eviscerated remains of its enemy.

END.


	11. Chapter 10: Oh the humanity!

Hello, readers. Since we left you with a cliff hanger last chapter, and sometimes we take a while to update, we decided to get another chapter out ASAP. it's either going to be our best so far attempt at capturing EVA, or a horrible failure that will fall screatching to the ground of mediocrity like a literary Hindenburg.

Anyhow, here we go.

Chapter 10: Oh the humanity!

"Shut up, you little brat!" Rei's eyes shot opened to the more than unsettling feeling of her trachea being crushed by a large, shaking hand, slowly focusing in on the snarling face of a brown haired woman. "He'd never say that about me!" The young girl reached up, her hands scrabbling to get a grip on the older woman's, just for a moment of air, before her vision began to dim, the image before her swimming out of focus.

When it was gone, so was the pressure on her neck, though now she floated in a featureless mass of blue. Her memory also seemed to return. The simple assignment of destroying the seventh Angel in its inactive state, the surprise attack, and her last ditch attempt to fight the thing, even with no armor and only one weapon. Shortly after her first ever attempt to mimic one of Ranma-san's Chi attacks, alarms had started going off, and a sensation of dislocation had swept over her.

"Where am I?" she asked, her words sounding dead in the air, as though there was nothing for them to echo off of, and possibly not even any medium for them to travel through. Apprehension began to claw up in the usually calm girl's chest, but she suppressed it, trying to think, to concentrate on exactly what had gone wrong.

HR.

"Unit 00 has been locked down and the signal block's in place," Hyuga reported, his voice cutting through the tense atmosphere of Central Dogma like a progressive knife.

"Eject the plug and..." Ranma started, before Commander Ikari interrupted him.

"Don't eject the plug, bring up a camera view from inside of it," the older man said, his hands crossed in front of his face.

Ranma looked mildly annoyed, though the techs carried out the commander's orders with no comment, bringing up a view of Unit 00's plug's interior. It was bathed in red light, due to the fact that it was on auxiliary power, but what was inside was clearly visible. Rei's empty, free floating plugsuit, its former occupant nowhere to be found.

"Ritsuko, what happened?" the pigtailed man asked, turning rapidly to the brunette, who was studying her read outs carefully.

"It looks like her synchronization rate increased so high that the Evangelion absorbed her," the woman responded. "There has been one recorded instance of this happening before, with Unit 01 and its original test pilot." She abruptly closed her mouth, looking up to Commander Ikari, whose hands hadn't moved.

"Does the report on that incident say anything about how to get her back?" the Strategic Operations Officer asked, looking up for a moment at the disconcerting image of the plugsuit before looking away. "And could someone get that image off the screen?"

Maya complied with her superior's last order so quickly that the other two techs didn't even get a chance to move their hands, with a noticeable sigh of relief, while Ritsuko frowned. "The previous attempt... didn't work," she admitted, reluctantly.

Ranma and the three techs winced, before the room descended into an uncomfortable silence. After a few seconds, the pigtailed man broke it. "Well then, let's make sure it works this time."

HR.

Shinji yawned, sitting up in bed and noting that the sun was surprisingly high in the sky. Usually, if he slept this late, Ranma would be by to bang on his door, but the house seemed unusually inactive this morning.

He briefly, ponderously, thought over the fact that it was about 9:00 in the morning, according to a clock next to his bed, before his brain managed to slough off at least some of its sleep induced fog, and he realized that it was a work day. That tidbit of information ran through his mind for yet another few seconds, before his eyes widened and he shoved his legs out of bed, bolting to his feet and grabbing random bits of clothing out of his dresser drawers as quickly as he could.

Ten minutes later, after the fastest shower he'd ever taken, he was on his way out the door with a slice of toast between his teeth when he noticed the answering machine light on the phone that hung from the kitchen wall was blinking.

His new guardians had told the Ikari boy to always check messages on the machine, just in case something had come up and they needed to give him a message. Deciding that Mrs. Ryoji was probably already as pissed at him as she was going to get, he stopped and picked up the handset.

"Hi, Shinji. It's Ritsuko. Sorry, but Ranma and I are going to be working at NERV for a little longer than we expected. The emergency funds are hidden under my desk lamp, use some of it to buy supper tonight, all right?" As the machine beeped, the Third Child looked at it quizzically. The older woman's voice had sounded tired and a little stressed, and he wondered if something had gone wrong. He was jolted out of that thought process, however, when he caught a glimpse of the time on the microwave and remembered he was late. The Angel sirens weren't ringing, which meant it wasn't his problem until he was told something.

HR.

The light was blurry, and she wasn't sure where she was as her eyes opened once again. Still, although her vision wasn't quite up to snuff yet, her hearing was fine, and she could hear two people talking nearby, a man and a woman. "Why in the world are we even dealing with some young kid down here?" the man asked, irritably. "I thought this was supposed to be a secure facility."

"She's the girl Ikari adopted, remember?" the woman responded, sounding a little less annoyed and more worried. "A shame what happened to her, Doctor Akagi, too."

"You ask me, the old lady was always kind of nuts," the guy cut in. "Though yeah, if she did that to the kid..." he trailed off. "Maybe it's a good thing she took a header off that ledge."

"Roshi!" the female voice scolded. "That isn't funny."

"Yeah, whatever," the man said, noncommittally, before she lost consciousness again.

HR.

Asuka sat in her school desk, trying not to fidget. She had been told, when she came into work that morning, that Ranma had called Ukyo and informed her that the Children were to continue attending school. This probably meant that the Angel had been defeated, though she hadn't really had time to ask about it, especially since Misato had taken off to some place called Matsushiro early in the morning.

"Where's Ayanami?" she muttered, as she did her best to tune out the history teacher's incessant prattling about Second Impact. Earlier in the day, she hadn't really been worried, as both Rei and Shinji had been missing, and she'd thought they'd grown some spines and skipped to celebrate the defeat of that irritating Angel. She'd been contemplating ways to make them regret not inviting her along, after all, it had been her who had come up with the idea of just stabbing the thing while it was down, when Shinji had run into class, apologizing profusely and panting as though he was going to bring up a lung.

Still, it had been half an hour since then, and Rei's seat next to the window was occupied by nothing but the rather depressed look of that nerd who was always hanging around her. Looking up to the front of the room, she saw that the teacher was sitting in his chair, his eyes fixed on a ceiling tile as he recounted his family's travels during the first few years after Second Impact... again. Slipping a hand into a pocket on the front of her school dress, she pulled out her cell phone and began to dial.

The phone rang a few times, before it was picked up by Misato, though the call was broken up by a bunch of static and loud noises. "Hey Asuka, what's up?" the purple haired woman asked, casually.

"What in the world is going on behind you?" the redhead asked quietly, hearing what sounded like a large truck backing up.

"What? I can't hear you," the NERV officer called back, loudly enough that the class rep, who sat next to the EVA pilot, was giving her a strange look. Asuka gave her a pleading one in return, and the other girl frowned, but nodded.

"I said, What's that noise?" the Second child tried to say it slightly louder without alerting the teacher.

This apparently worked, as Misato responded. "We've just taken delivery on a really big package, that's all," she said, giving the German images of giant particle cannons, or maybe rocket booster packs for the EVAs to use. Still, she wanted to know about Rei. "Is Ayanami there? How did stabbing that Angel in the face go?"

"What? Speak up a little, would ya?" the Katsuragi woman yelled, as there was a loud crash behind her. "Hey, be careful with that thing!"

"I said, how did Rei's mission yesterday go?" Asuka tried again, only to get another 'what' from her guardian. "I asked how the mission went?" she said it much louder this time, and was suddenly reminded once more that she was in a classroom as she heard the teacher clear his throat loudly.

"Miss. Langley, is there something you would like to share with the class?" the old man asked, giving the girl a disapproving look.

"Uh, um, nothing, sir," the redhead said, rapidly hanging up her phone and slipping it into her pocket, before sheepishly looking around at the rest of the class, who were staring at her in curiosity.

On the other end of the suddenly disconnected line, Misato shrugged. It couldn't have been all that important, something about prices of admission. She decided to pick up a few tickets to something she figured Asuka would like on her way back to Tokyo-3. Seeing something that irritated her, she scowled. "Would you idiots be careful with that thing?" she snarled, striding up to a pair of workmen who were quickly securing an entry plug on the back of a transport, the number 03 clearly visible on its top.

HR.

"Unit 03 has arrived in Japan," one ominous black obelisk seemed to produce a human voice, as it and 11 others floated in a ring, the words "Sound Only" written on them in bright red lettering.

"Now, of course, we need the final item which will complete it," another voice spoke. "Has Ikari made any selections from the candidate pool?"

"No, and I have no intentions of letting him. If we give that man enough rope, he'll hang us all." the first voice cut in. "Though I have no particular preference for the pilot, we all know what will occur."

"How about this one?" a third voice said, a holographic photo appearing in the center of the group, oriented to each observer as though he were staring face on into it.

The group paused for a moment, before each man answered "No" in unison.

"All right, then the best way to do it is likely the simplest," another new voice cut in. "We've waited for a long time for core material to present itself, perhaps it's time to persue somewhat more... direct action?"

"With the number of angel attacks, it's statistically improbable that none has shown up already, however you're right. we will need to dispatch someone to make the proper arrangements. Whichever agent is given the first opportunity to come across an 'accident' without implicating us is to take it immediately," Chairman Keel's voice affirmed, before the last speaker spoke again.

"By the way, chairman, I approve of the increased security, but why have we changed our meeting method recently?"

Keel grimaced. "It was necessary," he said, turning to look into the hole in his viewing chamber wall, a few wires still sparking from where the remains of his very expensive holo-camera dangled by one bolt. "If there is no other business, our meeting for the day is adjourned." No one spoke up over the next thirty seconds, and the monoliths faded away.

HR.

"Hello, Rei." The woman who stood before her was familiar. Actually, Rei knew perfectly well who she was, Ritsuko Akagi being someone she saw every day, however the sense of not knowing who she was, but still recognizing a familiar face persisted. "My name is Dr. Akagi, how are you this morning?"

She found herself flinching as she heard the name, and the brown haired woman tilted her head. "Are you all right?" She asked, worriedly.

"Dr. Akagi is dead," the blue haired girl said, her voice very quiet.

"Yes..." The woman swallowed once. "She was my mother. I'm Ritsuko Akagi." Rei didn't respond verbally, only nodding. "Commander Ikari wants me to examine you and do some tests, is that all right?"

"Yes, Ma'am," the girl said, obediently, though still in her flat, quiet voice. Rei saw a look on the woman's face that she now recognized as discomfort, but she still lead her out of the room, smiling and attempting to keep up a good bedside manner.

The visit seemed to blend together, into dozens of examinations that had taken place, an uncomfortable sensation always present in the pit of her stomach as she met the eyes of a face that she now realized she'd stared into an older version of as she died.

"Hey, Ritsuko, I was wondering... woops!" The blue haired girl's attention snapped back to the parade of tests as she heard a voice that wasn't Dr. Akagi's, and noted that Ranma-san was standing in the room with them, his head apparently shoved into a medical supply cabinet. "Shouldn't you have a sign on the door or have this place locked or something?"

"I usually do," Dr. Akagi was actually grinning. "And the one time I don't, you walk in. This innocent man act is getting kind of thin, you know."

"Ritsuko, she's nine," Ranma-san replied sharply, "And I ain't the old freak."

The doctor just sighed, handing Rei a robe that she put on. "Well, you can look now," she said, and the martial artist removed his head from the cabinet. "This is Rei. Rei, this is Ranma, my husband."

"Huh, so this is the First?" Ranma-san asked, looking at the girl curiously.

"I am the second," Rei replied, without really thinking.

"Huh?" was Ranma-san's only response, and Dr. Akagi's expression turned uncomfortable.

"It's sort of above your clearance level, sorry," she muttered, apparently not wanting to explain the whole situation right now.

"Well, First or Second, it's good to meet ya." It didn't seem to bother the older man much that he'd just been told to mind his own business, as he and his wife just shared a look for a second before he returned his attention to Rei. "I'm the Strategic Operations Officer, so once you're old enough and we've got the kinks worked out of Unit 00, we'll be working together."

"Understood," Rei responded, obviously not in a way that Ranma-san had expected. He shared another confused look with his wife, who just shrugged back.

"Well, I should probably let the doc here get finished with your examination," the martial artist said, rather awkwardly, before telling Dr. Akagi that he would see her later in the day and leaving the room.

HR.

"So, who's winning?" Makoto Hyuga walked across the catwalk in the EVA cage, handing his superior officer a can of coffee.

"Very funny," Ranma grumbled, though he accepted the can, popping the tab and guzzling it like a man dieing of thirst.

"Well, sir, unless there's something you've learned from glaring at it for eight hours, all I can think of is you're trying to stare it into releasing Pilot Ayanami."

"You'd be surprised," the martial artist said, mysteriously. "Have any of you guys figured out Unit 00's grown an S2 engine yet?"

"About half an hour ago, actually," the tech said, deciding that he didn't really want to question the martial artist reguarding how he'd found out.

"I can see her, Hyuga," Ranma sighed. "I've got to concentrate to do it, and wading through Unit 00's usual confused aura's not a picnic, but I can see her... and can't do a damned thing about it."

"Dr. Akagi's got a good lead from the files we pulled from the last attempt," the bespectacled man replied. "We're going to get her back, but..." He took a deep breath; the last time he'd said something trying to hint at this, it had been a joke, and his superior had let it slide. This time, though, he might be committing career suicide. "You aren't going to help us by sitting here making the cage techs nervous. There's still a threat of Angel attack, and we need you sharp to command Units 01 and 02 if it happens."

Much to Hyuga's relief, the pigtailed man nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right," he admitted. "Just... notify me if something happens, all right?"

"First thing I'll do, sir," the bridge officer replied, masking his sigh of relief.

"Oh, and Hyuga?" Ranma asked, as he started out of the room. "What do you mean I make the cage crew nervous?"

"You were glowing, sir."

HR.

Shinji and Asuka walked along the sidewalk towards the apartment building, the latter looking up into the telephone lines, tracing them with her eyes. "So you didn't see her today at all?"

Shinji shook his head. "Last night, after you talked to Ranma, he and Ritsuko-san took her in to NERV. Sometimes she's there for a long time, though. I think she's sick, or something."

"Hmm?" the German asked, curiously.

"I don't know, I've never seen her coughing or anything, but with what she looks like, and all the times she and Ritsuko-san go in for medical exams," the Third child shrugged. "Plus she was pretty banged up when I first arrived."

"Yeah," Asuka said, nodding decisively. She knew that albinos often had health complications, and that was probably what it was. She told herself to stop worrying about it. Not that she was really worried about the First, but it had been her idea, and...

"Hey, who's that?" Shinji didn't know that he was interrupting Asuka's train of thought, but she was at least somewhat grateful to him for it as she traced his pointing finger to a person apparently camped out on the front steps of their apartment building.

"No one I know," the Second child replied. "If Section 2 hasn't gotten her to move along, she's probably a tenant who forgot her keys or something."

Shinji nodded, walking up to the woman and smiling nervously. "Hello, miss, is there something wrong?"

The woman looked up from a small laptop computer she'd been working on, blinking as she caught sight of who was talking to her. It was the waitress from Ucchan's. "I'm fine," she smiled back. "I'm just waiting for Ranma Saotome, I heard he was one of the owners of this building. Do you know when he's going to be home?"

"If he's not home, he's probably still at..." Shinji started, before getting a kick to the back of the ankle from Asuka.

"Still at work," she cut in, giving the Ikari boy a warning look. "He works some pretty irregular hours."

"Yeah, I know," the woman said, seeming to come to a decision. "Being a Captain in NERV will do that to you." Both children's faces gained surprised expressions, and the woman smiled. "I'm guessing you two are Evangelion pilots, right?"

"Sheist," the redhead grumbled. "Hasn't anyone around here heard of operational security?"

"If they had, you would have just blown it," the brown haired woman said, smirking like a particularly satisfied cat. "My name's Nabiki Tendo, I'm an old friend of Ranma's."

"Oh," Shinji said, some of the training his uncle had instilled in him taking precedence over common sense. "If you want, you can come inside and wait. I could get you something to drink."

Asuka rolled her eyes, and decided to follow as the other two entered the building, turning to the only apartment door on the first floor, rather than the stairs up to her own place. After all, Misato was probably still out of town and she would never complain about free food cooked by someone else.

As she entered the apartment, the girl whistled. "This is a pretty nice place, Ikari, maybe I should move in and kick you out. I'm sure they'd rather have me live here than you."

"That isn't funny," Shinji grumbled, giving her an irritated look. Still, it was better than how he had reacted to her jabs a week earlier. Then, he probably would have thought she was serious, and actually started packing his things.

"No, I think she's right," Nabiki responded. "If she doesn't do it, I might." Shinji ignored this, opening the fridge and rummaging around for some bottles of water.

"Here you are, Tendo-san," the boy said, giving Nabiki the bottle of water, before slumping down at the kitchen table and taking off his backpack, withdrawing a pile of school work that he'd managed to miss over the past five days.

"Great, Shinji, you had to remind me," Asuka grumbled. "All that language homework."

"You two do homework?" Nabiki asked, actually surprised.

"...yeah," Shinji said, looking at her oddly. "We had to skip school recently for..." Asuka mimed kicking with one foot, and he shut his mouth for a moment before continuing, "Some tests."

"It's kind of weird though, isn't it? I mean you two pilot giant robots, I didn't really think..." The brown haired woman trailed off, shrugging.

"When I asked, Misato said something about 'maintaining a normal environment' while we weren't in combat or training," Asuka said. "It's stupid, though. I graduated from university over a year ago."

"You did?" Shinji seemed surprised. "Then why do you have so much trouble with language?"

"Because having three systems of writing is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of," the redhead complained, slumping down at the table next to the Ikari. Nabiki decided to keep quiet, observing the two pilots. After all, she could still work on her report here, and it was a lot more comfortable than the front step.

HR.

About three hours later, Nabiki's attitude had changed somewhat. Granted, she'd eaten a quite good meal, cooked by Shinji, but she had a feeling that Asuka had realized she was trying to pump them for information, and was preventing Shinji from giving her any.

The boy was really too trusting, and she felt kind of bad for exploiting that, but at the moment, she was hoping to get as much information about the EVAs as she could, and then get the heck out of the city. She'd heard about the Angel attack a week ago, an then, the night before... For a moment, her eyes fell on an envelope that was peaking out of her computer case, but she jerked them away quickly.

She was pondering just leaving, calling Ranma to make an appointment to meet with him later, when the front door opened. She looked up to see Ranma staggering in, looking as though he'd spent the entire day and night before hunting Happosai. He didn't even seem to notice them, barely nodding as Shinji and Asuka said hello to him. As an experiment, she chipped in as well. "Hey, Saotome."

"Hey Nabiki," he responded, shambling out of the room and down the hall.

"Is he usually like that when he gets home?"

Both Children shook their heads. "Ritsuko-san's usually with him, too," Shinji chipped in. Granted, Asuka hadn't really talked to the man much outside of tests or pilot meetings, but he usually sounded friendly, really energetic, and kind of like a hick when he let his concentration slip.

Nabiki nodded, standing and sticking her laptop into its case next to the chair she was sitting in before extracting the file folder from it and heading into the hallway. Immediately after she'd left the room, Asuka struck.

HR.

Maya Ibuki heard a long, sustained beep coming from the other side of the control room, which was quite distracting while she was attempting to translate 10 year old records from a different operating system with little enough margin of error that it wouldn't turn Rei into particularly chunky pea soup.

Looking over, she saw Dr. Akagi slumped over her keyboard, a long string of the letter E being appended to her current line of code. She sighed. The central control crew had cycled twice since this incident began, and apparently, Hyuga had just come back from hyperventilating after telling the captain to go home and get some sleep. The sad part was, Captain Saotome was actually the more reasonable of the two when it came to putting in long hours, and Hyuga had the benefit of the fact that the pigtailed man really couldn't do anything about the situation.

If she woke Dr. Akagi, on the other hand, even to try and get her to go home, she would immediately continue her work. Wondering if it was just a natural law that people became more obsessed as they climbed the ranks of NERV, the computer operator stood from her seat, walking over to a locker on the wall that contained an emergency hazmat suit. Taking off the body section, she eased her superior off of her keyboard, and wadded the cloth-like material up under her head.

Looking down at the doctor's screen, she wondered exactly what aquariums had to do with the program she was running, but still saved it before shutting down the machine.

HR.

"'Suko, lemme sleep," Ranma muttered, batting Nabiki's hand away.

"How are you even asleep so fast?" she grumbled. She'd just seen him enter the bedroom about three minutes ago, and now he was acting like he'd been passed out for hours. "Damn it, Saotome, wake up!" She would try and slap him, but unfortunately she knew that he'd just dodge that, so she reached out and shoved him again.

"Told ya lemme sleep," he grumbled again, so Nabiki pushed him once more. It was at about that moment that she found things completely impossible to track. Ranma had grabbed her wrist while she pushed him, and she'd spun, she thought maybe upside down for a moment before finding herself in the bed and under the covers. When the pigtailed man threw one arm over her and wrapped it around her back, she growled and kicked him in the stomach.

This succeeded in waking him up, but much to her annoyance, didn't seem to hurt him that badly. "Nabiki?" he asked, his eyes blurrily flickering. "Why'd you sneak into my bed? Your old man's not trying the marriage thing again, is he?"

The middle Tendo's eyebrows twitched, and she desperately wanted to grab the closest thing to hand and cave his skull in with it, but she bit back that impulse, reminding herself that she needed information. "I didn't sneak into your bed," she said, throwing his arm off and rolling out from under the blankets. "I only wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Well, could ya come back tomorrow?" the pigtailed man asked, starting to lower his head back to his pillow. Nabiki's eyebrow twitched again. Sure, earlier she'd thought about doing just that, but at the moment she was annoyed, and didn't particularly feel like agreeing to Ranma's request. Still, she didn't say this, instead opening the folder she'd brought, dropping a single image out of it and onto the bed. Ranma's eyes shot open as he processed what he was seeing, Unit 00 in its unarmored state, perfectly lit by its own pulse of orange AT energy, the gash on its leg bleeding copiously. "Where did you get this?" he asked calmly, all tiredness seeming to leave his expression and form as he sat up, holding the image in one hand.

"I took it last night," the brunette replied. "It seemed kind of suspicious that NERV would black out a whole section of the city, so I went out and took a look around."

""So that's what we saw on the ground," NERV's Strategic Operations Officer was now frowning deeply. "Nabiki, you've got to destroy any copies of this you've got."

"You've got to be kidding me," the reporter said, her voice deadpan.

"I'm not," Ranma returned, ripping the image in his hand to pieces. "It wouldn't be safe for you to distribute images like this. NERV would stop you, and even if we didn't, I'm pretty sure there's people higher up than us who would do it instead."

"Yeah, like you'd let that happen," the brown haired woman smirked, shaking her head. "I have no idea what this image is of, but it does show there's something strange going on in Tokyo-3 and NERV. Damn it, the thing was bleeding, don't tell me you don't want to know about that."

"I know about it, the EVAs are biomecha, created using Angelic and Human genetic material, and guided by the pilot and the armor they wear."

"Why would you tell me that if you want me to back off?" Nabiki asked, somewhat mystified and wondering if the martial artist was still half asleep.

"Nabiki," Ranma stopped talking for a moment, before meeting her eyes directly, his own expression rather hard to read. "I didn't say NERV would stop you even if I tried to stand up for you, I said it because NERV would stop you, and if I needed to, I would hunt you down, capture you and even kill you to keep that information from reaching the public. I can tell you what the EVAs are because you already know too much."

"Y... you're threatening to kill me," the reporter stuttered, her voice laced with disbelief.

"No, I'm promising to kill you if that information gets out," Ranma responded. "NERV is the only thing standing between Humanity and destruction."

"You're really serious about this, huh?" Nabiki shook her head.

"Think about it, what was your first reaction when you saw Unit 00 tear into that Angel? When I told you what it was made of?" Ranma continued.

"Well, I... I was horrified. I still am, how could we create something like that?" the brown haired woman asked, actually sounding somewhat shaken.

"We did it because it works, and it's all that works," the pigtailed martial artist sighed. "And what do you figure will happen when the rest of the world, who think just like you do, like I did when I first found out, finds out about this?"

"You'll be shut down in about five minutes," the middle Tendo grumbled, beginning to realize what he was getting at. "You know you're going to be put up for war crimes, hell, maybe even crimes against humanity for this when it finally breaks, right?"

Ranma shrugged. "Probably, and when it's all over, feel free to cover as much of the story as you want, but until then..."

"I got it," Nabiki nodded. "You've changed a hell of a lot since highschool."

"For your sake I hope you have, to," he responded, causing her to flinch. She nodded shortly, before tossing the folder with the rest of her pictures on the bedside table. Of course, she had copies on her computer, but disposing of the hard copies, at least until she decided what she was going to do, was probably a good idea.

As she entered the living room, she saw that the two EVA pilots looked rather nervous, the girl rapidly exiting from what looked like a first person shooter video game and grabbing a pencil. "Don't worry," she smiled at her. "Ranma's passed out, and I won't tell."

The girl smiled in gratitude, and pulled out a network cable, hooking her computer to the one the boy had next to his own work as the older woman left the house.

HR.

"What were you thinking?" Rei almost flinched as she heard the angry exclamation from within the commander's office. She had just come back from the room where all of her other clones were stored, in her first synchronization since Dr. Akagi, the new Dr. Akagi, had arrived, and wanted to report her status to Commander Ikari.

It seemed the commander was busy, so she decided to wait outside of his office. Unfortunately, his office's other occupant was very loudly displeased about whatever they were talking about. "The building is a wreck," the female voice yelled, followed by the low, steady base of commander Ikari's, which she couldn't make out.

"Budgetary concerns? Look, we're supposed to have this girl pilot one of the most dangerous machines on the planet against creatures we know nothing about; she should probably have a pretty high spot on the budget." Rei blinked as she realized that the conversation was evidently about her, but felt no need to stop listening. In truth, she wasn't even really actively listening, just letting the words drift to her. "Well, what about at least giving her a guardian, she can't be expected to live alone like that." Gendo spoke for a moment and the female voice came back, now sounding even more irritated. "Motherly? You..." The woman cut off abruptly, as she left the office, the door swinging open so rapidly that it almost hit Rei in the face.

As she stepped back to avoid it, apparently unseen by the person who had come through, she blinked. Dr. Akagi rapidly moved down the hall, turning around a corridor, though her heels could still be heard for almost a minute after she'd left easy eyesight.

END.

Hope you liked it, please R&R.


	12. Chapter 11:Slow Piano Cover

Chapter Not a Baker's Dozen: Slow Piano Cover.

Nabiki sat in her small, one bedroom apartment, and tried again. "Saotome threatened to kill me." The words bounced around her head for a moment, and then seemed to fade away. It was, to her, absolutely inconceivable. Saotome was violent, kind of stupid, and had no tact, even after his military training and marriage, but threatening death, and meaning it as he still hadn't gotten any better at lying in the past decade, was something she'd only ever heard of him doing twice, and both times had involved extreme situations.

This, of course, piqued her curiosity. While the threat had been very clear, that had also been a good thing in that it spelled out exactly what she was allowed to get away with. She removed her laptop from its case, laying on the bed beside her, and opened it, creating a file and beginning to transcribe the conversation she'd had with the pigtailed martial artist earlier. She couldn't report on the situation, for now, and that was fine. Shaking her head, she noted that Saotome knew her far too well. He had said nothing about stopping her investigation.. as long as she didn't get caught.

HR.

Shinji Ikari looked at the screen before him, wondering why it was that he had to see this again right after lunch. Granted, this time, the armorless EVA wasn't horribly burnt, but what it was doing to the Seventh Angel easily made up for that. "Where did you get this?" he finally asked, after the image faded out with the sound of squealing brakes.

"It was on that reporter's computer," Asuka responded, looking much more pale than the Third Child. Realizing this, and connecting it with the observation that Shinji seemed a lot more squeamish than she was, she finally observed, "You aren't surprised."

"Well, if her EVA got that badly torn up, it would sort of explain why she wasn't here," Shinji responded, wondering if he should hazard drinking the rest of his orange juice. His question was answered when the second child angrily tapped several keys, cycling to a picture of Unit 00 with a hunk of dripping angel flesh in its fist.

"Doesn't this freak you out just a little?" she asked, her expression incredulous.

"Yeah, so don't keep doing that," he muttered, hitting a key combination and banishing the image.

"It doesn't bother you at all that we're apparently piloting Kaiju?!" The entire class, including Kensuke, who had been lurking at a constant three desk distance since the Second Child had told him she'd sic section two on him if he spied on them, looked over at the redhead's exclamation in curiosity or surprise. This, surprisingly, included Shinji.

"You mean Katsuragi-san didn't tell you?" he asked, tilting his head as though it were common knowledge.

Asuka twitched, her hands making little clawing motions towards the Third Child's throat before she forcibly calmed them down. "No, Shinji, she didn't tell me my EVA could re-enact a zombie movie. Why, did they tell you?"

"Um, Asuka?" The brown haired boy sounded very nervous now, and the redhead thought that she may be getting through to him, before he pointed over her shoulder. Reluctantly, she turned to see the entire class, including the teacher, staring at her.

"We'll talk about this later," she muttered, slinking back to her seat.

HR.

"Welcome home!" The hall was spartan, but a banner had been hung in the kitchen, the words "Welcome, Rei" written on it in some of the sloppiest romaji she'd ever seen. She slowly stepped past the threshold, not really sure why she felt hesitant, as Captain Saotome and Dr. Akagi stood in front of her, the former obviously fidgeting while the doctor looked a little more at ease.

"So, how do you like it?" She looked around again. The room she was in was much brighter than her apartment, though it did seem equally economical. She nodded, and Captain Saotome stopped fidgeting with his braid.

"Well, that's great," he said, still seeming somewhat nervous. "You can chose any of the rooms down the hall, and we'll move your stuff."

She looked at him questioningly. "I assumed I was to live here," she responded, and gestured to the perfectly usable couch she'd noticed tucked off in a corner. Both of the adults looked at each other, confused.

HR.

"It's way too early for this," Ranma Saotome muttered, staring down at a file folder that Misato had plunked down on his desk five minutes earlier.

She checked her watch. "It's 3:30." To tell the truth, she was almost as tired as the strategic operations officer looked, as she'd just gotten off a fast transport from Matsushiro after spending a day and a half locking down a new Evangelion that they hadn't been informed was going to arrive until late last week.

"I thought they weren't going to make their selection for a while," Ranma grumbled. "Don't even know why the Americans transferred it here, rather than testing it themselves. Not that I'm not grateful to get another EVA, just seems too nice, that's all."

Misato snorted. "It isn't nice at all," she responded. "Apparently, before they got the data from the Angel we sent over, Unit 04's S2 engine was primed to rip a hole in space-time."

Ranma's head shot up, all sleepiness temporarily forgotten. "So... they're sending it to us because they're afraid..."

"It's gunna blow up, yep," Misato finished off, with a big grin.

"Yeah, definitely too early for this," Ranma repeated, dejectedly.

The purple haired woman smiled to herself. She had been trying to avoid Ranma for the past few weeks, but now she sort of wondered why. She'd known from college that the guy couldn't hold a grudge if you gave him special equipment to do it, and he was still fun to tease. "So, what's so bad about this pilot?" she finally asked, turning the pages of the Marduke file on the desk.

"Nothing, really, I just sort of wish it wasn't someone Shinji and Rei already know." Ranma replied. "Of course, it's kinda inevitable when the place is set up as a storehouse for candidates."

Misato nodded as though she'd known that already, making a note to write it down and investigate the claim later. "So Commander Ikari wants us to go and recruit her as soon as possible. He would have sent you and Ritsuko, but the entire scientific division's chewing on something right now."

Ranma winced. "Yeah... School should be out in half an hour, and..."

"Good, I'll drive! Meet me in the parking lot." The pigtailed man was half way through articulating an objection, when the report seemed to vanish from in front of him and Misato walked out the door, humming loudly.

"Damn it," he muttered, reaching into his desk and pulling out a can of coffee, popping the tab and beginning to guzzle. "I didn't expect her to come along."

HR.

When Kodoma Horaki rolled off of the couch in the small apartment that she and her two sisters shared in order to answer the door, she was expecting a few things. Possibly one of Hikari's school friends, bringing her paperwork for her job as class rep, or yet another annoying salesperson. What she did not expect were two adults, both wearing military looking uniforms with the NERV patch on the shoulder. "Can I help you?" she asked, trying to clear her head of the fog that had been there while she was dozing.

"You're Kodoma Horaki?" the man asked.

"Yes," she said, trying to recall where she'd seen his face before. "Is there something wrong?"  
"Depends on how you look at it," the woman muttered, obviously believing that she had been too quiet to be heard.

"There's nothing wrong," the man said, deciding to ignore the comment. "We just need to speak to you and your younger sister, Hikari."

The eldest Horaki sister nodded, stepping back into the apartment and gesturing the NERV officers to follow her. When she entered the living room, she called her younger sister's name. About a minute later, Hikari exited the kitchen, wearing a pair of oven mitts and looking rather annoyed. When she saw the visitors, her eyes widened slightly. "Captain Saotome?" she asked, confused. "Did Aida do something dumb again?"

Misato brought a hand up to unsuccessfully hide a laugh, while Hikari's sister gave her a confused look. Ranma just shook his head. "No, this isn't about Kensuke," he responded, seeming to consider something. "Do you remember those tests your class took at the beginning of the year?"

The girl nodded. She'd found the reflex and mental acuity tests rather pointless, especially when she'd found out that they were going to some place called Mar-duck, rather than the school's records.

"Well," Ranma continued, "those tests were meant to figure out who had the ability to pilot an Evangelion. You've been selected as the next pilot."

"What?!" the yell came in stereo, while Misato rubbed her forehead, wondering if she should have taken care of the announcement.

Hikari had staggered backwards, tripped over the edge of the couch, and was now sitting on it, looking up in disbelief. "But... me, an EVA pilot?" She shook her head, rapidly, a hundred different objections coming to mind at once, including Asuka's yelling earlier that day, and her worried silence when asked about it later.

Fortunately, Kodama was a little more articulate. "I was under the impression that you had pilots for all of the Evangelions."

"A new one just arrived, Unit 03." Misato said, covering for Ranma's flinch.

"Well, couldn't you ask someone else?" Hikari finally burst out.

The two NERV officers looked at each other for a moment, and then Ranma shook his head. "No," he said before explaining. "Each EVA works best with a certain pilot. I don't really understand the selection process in detail, but if you don't synchronize well with the Unit, it won't be able to move or fight."

Hikari still looked pretty poleaxed. "I... don't," she said, trying to construct a sentence and failing.

"I know the idea of piloting an EVA is frightening," Misato started. "But we do everything in our power to keep the pilots safe."

"Like what happened to Rei," Hikari said, before she could stop herself, and was startled when Captain Saotome pinned her with a glare for a moment before turning aside.

"What happened to Rei?" Kodoma asked, vaguely recalling the name, as Hikari had told her a little bit about her.

"Rei was injured in combat," Ranma finally said, reluctantly.

"Oh," Hikari said, suddenly realizing what the glare was about, as she'd seen Captain Saotome during parent teacher interviews, and knew that he and his wife had pretty much adopted the strange red eyed girl. "I'm sorry, I didn't know,"

The pigtailed man shook his head. "It's fine," he said, before thinking for a few moments. "We're not going to stand here and tell you that piloting isn't dangerous. It is, and it's gotten pilots hurt before, but it's going to be a lot more dangerous just to be living on the planet if we don't stop the Angels."

The girl nodded, thinking. "So I'm really it, huh?" she asked, her voice shaking a little bit.

"We may be able to get another candidate from the Marduke organization, but I'm unsure how long that would take." Misato answered, honestly.

The room was silent for several minutes, as Hikari thought. When she spoke, she sounded almost as quiet and reluctant as Shinji had. "I'll do it."

"Hikari, are you sure?" the brown haired girl's older sister asked, noticing her expression.

"Yeah, it's the right thing to do, right?" the younger Horaki said, and then giggled a bit. "Besides, Aida's face is going to be classic."

HR.

"So, what were you two talking about?" Misato asked, as she and Ranma headed towards her car, the man looking over some paperwork that had been signed during the meeting.

"I was just explaining the payscale and alternative housing stuff," the pigtailed martial artist said.

"And nothing else?" Misato prodded, grinning. "You sure I shouldn't be telling Ritsuko about this?"

Ranma snorted. "You can tell Ritsuko anything you'd like, it was nothing."

"There's a whole lot of nothing going on lately," the purple haired woman said, sliding into the drivers seat of the car and slamming the door. Ranma just ignored her last comment, busily staring at the dashboard as the engine roared to life and the vehicle jumped forward, shifting through gears as quickly as Misato could manage.

After about a minute, Ranma sighed. "We're going the wrong way."

"No we're not," Misato responded cheerfully.

"Well, we're not headed for NERV or the apartments, so where are we going?" Ranma asked, exasperated.

"Now where would be the fun in telling you that?" The man just rolled his eyes.

HR.

"I do not understand the point of this," Rei said, as she looked down at the book in her hand. "It has no educational value and does not prepare me for piloting."

Captain Saotome sighed and leaned forward. "Look, I know I ain't the best one to be telling you this, but readin's about more than just learning and piloting," he began. "Ya can also read for fun. Fiction's good for that."

"I have not seen you reading anything other than paperwork for NERV," Rei replied.

"That's just because I read too much with work already, and I never got into it," he said. "It's too still for me, so I relax by practicing Martial Arts, but Ritsuko seems to enjoy it."

"So training is... fun for you?" Rei cautiously asked, not sure how she was supposed to respond. When the captain nodded, she added, "Then I would like to train as well. It would allow me to continue preparing for combat while completing this 'recreation' you and Doctor Akagi require of me."

The man blinked before replying, "You know, that's not really the point of what we're trying to get you to do."

"It would be a more efficient use of my time," Rei insisted.

Again, Captain Saotome sighed. "Fine, I'll train you in the Art. But if I do, I want you to give reading a try. If I don't see you reading at least a little bit, I'm going to call the lessons off." After a moment he added, "And I don't mean none of that educational stuff, either. Some pleasure reading is just what you need."

Rei was unsure. "Would this not be a waste of time?" she asked.

"Nah," Ranma replied with a wave. "It's not like we're expecting you to pilot for a few years yet, so there's no reason you can't just be a kid occasionally."

"Understood," Rei lied.

HR.

"Okay..." Misato mumbled, before taking a deliberately long sip from her beer glass. Next to her, Ranma had his head resting on the top of the bar, his own first glass of amber liquid half full. "So the First Child's been... eaten?"

Ranma lifted his head and nodded. "Seems to happen a lot around here," he replied, obviously recalling the incident with the Sixth Angel. "Apparently this has happened before, and Ritsuko's working on a recovery program, but that's probably going to take a while, and in the meantime..." He shrugged, indicating his helplessness in the situation.

Well, the dark haired woman thought, that explained his tiredness before. He'd probably been worried over the pilot. "If anyone can retrieve her, it's Ritsuko," she comforted. He didn't look convinced, taking a slow drink. Trying to think of a means of distracting him, she hit upon an idea which, as an extra bonus, would actually answer one of her own questions. "So, how did you get together with her, exactly?"

"Ritsuko? Um," he fidgeted with his pigtail for a moment, before finishing off his glass. "We got together after you... uh..."

"After I left," Misato supplied, realizing that she'd ended up making the conversation more awkward.

Ranma responded while making a gesture to get another glass of the same. "Yeah," he admitted. "I'm not even really sure how it happened, we originally started out talking about you," he shook his head again. "Then, I guess, since all of the messes in my past had already tried to kill me, and we got along pretty well..."

He'd just stopped, seeming to try and continue to formulate his explanation, but nothing came to mind. "It just sort of happened?" she replied, rather surprised. Neither of them had really seemed to be the type to just 'hook up,' but stranger things had happened. Then, after taking a sip of his just arrived drink, he asked the question she'd sort of been dreading ever since she'd come to Tokyo-3. "So, why did you leave, exactly?"

It was delivered casually, but neither of them were fooled into thinking it was actually casual, even if Misato knew that if she asked him to, he would drop it. Still, what was she supposed to tell him? As time went by, the reasons had started seeming just plain... stupid, but it'd happened.

She'd gotten close, grown to like, maybe even love him, and then the doubts had come. The observation that he seemed to focus on martial study with a zeal that she'd only seen before in her own father's eyes, the fear that one day, like him, Ranma would get so lost in his work that he would forget she even existed, or worse... She flinched, her vision overtaken for a moment by an image from her past, the desperate look on her father's face when he'd shoved his cross pendant into her hands, and sealed the small pod in which she'd escaped the second impact. "I don't want to talk about it," she said, after almost twenty seconds of silence.

Ranma nodded, and tossed back the rest of his second glass.

HR.

Rei approached Dr. Akagi, somewhat nervous. "Dr. Akagi, I may have a problem," she said, waiting for the woman to finish the work she'd been doing at the dining table before proceeding. "I have reason to believe that I have revealed my identity as a prospective Evangelion pilot."

"What happened, Rei?" the older woman asked.

"I met a boy at school today who had obtained images of a ship of the same class as the defense unit at Terminal Dogma. I assumed that the image was of said ship and may have given him classified information."

"So this was another student?" the brown haired woman asked, her face clearing slightly of the worried expression that had come over it previously. "Exactly how much did you tell him?"

"He was very interested in NERV's defensive armament, and we shared theories on possible coverage angles and ordnance load-outs." Rei reported, dispassionately. "I did not mention any of the Geofront's facilities below level C, as it isn't allowed without physical evidence of clearance level. I learned that he did not possess any clearance when I asked him for his card. He seemed to believe that we were speaking of hypotheticals."

"Rei..." Ritsuko started, before rethinking her comment. "It's probably best if you assume anyone in your age group does not have any NERV clearance. Actually, you should probably ask to see Identification before you discuss anything within the Geofront."

"I understand," the blue haired girl replied, eliciting a smile from Dr. Akagi.

"Could you tell me who it was that you talked to?" the older woman asked, producing a note pad.

"Kensuke Aida."

HR.

"Hello?" Asuka asked, answering her cell phone and stopping the episode of Big O she'd been watching while writing a history assignment.

"Asuka?" The voice was that of Hikari, the class rep, and she sounded pretty upset.

The second child sighed. "Did that idiot Touji say something?" she asked, recalling the other girl's crush on the tall, dark haired jerk.

"No, this isn't about Touji," Hikari started, "and he's not an idiot."

"All right, then what is it?" Asuka asked, though she was glad that the jab at her 'boyfriend' had been defended against much more slowly than usual.

"They've chosen me to be an EVA Pilot!" The german girl almost dropped her phone. Come to think of it, she really hoped that the cells used in Tokyo-3 were secure.

"They chose you as a pilot?" she returned, deciding to hope that they were, as the idea began to sink in.

"Captain Saotome and a purple haired woman came to my apartment this afternoon to tell me about it," the class rep explained. "I... I wanted to talk to you about it."

"Oh," Asuka said, suddenly recalling the 'special delivery' Misato had been managing the day before. She shook that off for a moment, deciding that the current situation was a little more important. "So, what did you want to talk over?" she asked, trying to sound cheerful.

"I thought that, since you know what piloting an EVA is like, you could tell me," Hikari replied. "Is there anything..." she trailed off, seemingly unsure of what to ask. "What did you mean about them being Kaiju?"

"Um," Asuka winced, recalling the video she'd seen of Unit 00. "They're really big, and smash buildings," she offered, lamely. She'd like to say exactly what she'd meant, but she wasn't completely sure that Hikari had actually become a pilot rather than going insane, or playing the least funny joke in history on her. Recalling where Shinji claimed to have found out, she suggested, "I'd ask Dr. Akagi questions about the EVAs."

"Oh..." Hikari said, her worries obviously not decreased in the least. "Is there any advice you can give me at all?"

"Just go with the flow," Asuka responded, "And don't worry, I'll be around to help you out. Shinji and Rei too, probably."

"Thanks, Asuka," Hikari said, sounding a little less tense.

"No problem,"" the red haired girl replied. "I'll talk to you some more in school tomorrow, all right?"

"All right," Hikari said, before the phone clicked off. Seconds later, the door across the main room of Misato's little apartment banged open, and said woman staggered in, a definite flush coloring her cheeks. "Welcome home," Asuka said, irritably, wrinkling her nose.

"Hiiii Asuka!" Misato replied, cheerfully drunk. "You're up late, aren't you?"

"It's eight thirty," Asuka replied, deadpan.

"Oh, really?" The older woman sounded rather mystified at this revelation, so Asuka sighed, standing and walking across the room.

"No, actually, both of us should really get to bed," she offered, leading her caretaker across to her bedroom.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Misato nodded assuredly. "You're not staying up 'till two watching Gundam again, I hope."

"No, Misato, I'll go to bed right now," Asuka replied, resigned. So much for asking her anything tonight. Then again, she'd sort of expected this to happen at least once since the carrier.

HR.

"Come on, come on..." In a darkened, out of the way portion of one of NERV's lowest levels, a locking panel beeped, the first of two layers of security falling. "Yes!" a voice hissed under its breath, as its owner reached into one of their uniform pockets. Retrieving a card from it with two images on it, they were about to swipe it through a reader next to the keypad when someone tapped on their shoulder.

Spinning as quickly as possible, she reached for a sidearm, before her gun hand was grasped in an iron grip, and the dark surroundings were lit by a dim blue glow. "R... Ranma?" Misato Katsuragi squeaked, as a rather unamused Captain looked at her levelly, a small energy ball held in his hand.

"Hey, Misato. Beautiful morning, ain't it?" he asked, sarcastically.

She sighed. "How did you know?"

"Honestly, you figured a Saotome wouldn't notice bein' pickpocketed?" Ranma snorted. "You've gotta be as good as the ol' man to get something out of my wallet without me noticing."

"But... you were smashed." Granted, Misato knew she was digging herself deeper, but was rather curious in spite of that.

"Actually, no. Ordered apple juice," he replied. "It's a trick I picked up so I can drink at parties without getting embarrassing. Decided to see why you wanted the card, so I had Hyuga flag it and he called me when it got used for the elevator down here."

"Ah," Misato winced. Seeing that he was expectantly watching her, and he'd released her hand, she slowly began to turn around. "I wanted to see this." Saying this, she slid the card through the reader, and the seemingly solid wall in front of them parted to reveal a giant chamber, its floor flooded with orange water, only a single wide walkway leading to the center.

In the middle of the room was a massive red cross, from which a nearly equally massive doughy white humanoid figure hung by spikes driven through its hands.

"How... it's grown so quickly," Misato said, amazed, despite having some idea of what she was going to see.

"You know what this is?" Ranma asked, gaping. He'd never been within the room, as one of the two main security measures required a code known only to Commander Ikari, Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko to pass.

"Yes," Misato nodded. "I brought it here."

"No," Ranma's flat statement caught the female officer off guard. "You couldn't have brought this here."

"When I came with Asuka," Misato shook her head. "I carried Adam in a suitcase, but I didn't know how quickly it could grow."

"Um, I'm probably gunna regret this, given you tried to steal my card and admitted to bringing the First Angel here in a suitcase," Ranma said, giving Misato a very strange look, "But if that happened, then this ain't Adam. I've never seen it, sure, but I've felt this thing down here since..." He shrugged. "Since pretty much forever."

"I..." Misato shook her head. "What the hell is going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Ranma replied, and then turned. "But for now, we should get out of here." He thought for a moment. "I want you to tell me exactly what you've been up to, but unfortunately, the activation test for Unit 03 is today and I need to prepare for it. How about you come along?"

Misato thought for a moment, but realized that it hadn't been a request. Ranma didn't want to let her out of his sight until things were explained, and she could understand why. She just wasn't sure what she was going to tell him. "All right," she said, taking a steadying breath. "Should be fun."

END. 


	13. Chapter 12: Awkward Elevator Scene

Okay, folks! Here's another chapter for you, and we hope you enjoy it. Our Beta told us that he had no recomended changes, and this concerns us greatly. Watch out for mimes.

Special bonus! Contains Jonabee's first "Official EVA Awkword Elevator Scene"(TM.) We're so proud that we're naming the chapter after it! Or we're too lazy and unorigional to come up with a better name, but that's not likely, is it?

Chapter 12: Awkward Elevator Scene.

Hikari winced as the door swung shut behind her, looking around. There was no turning back now. Well, it probably would have been pretty hard to turn back when the men in neatly tailored black suits had arrived at her door this morning with a NERV issued car, but now that she was deep inside of the Geofront, standing in front of the door to a medical room where she'd had the most ridiculously intense physical of her life, she was pretty sure 'cold feet' wouldn't go over too well.

Looking down at the small, plastic wrapped package in her hands, she grimaced. She didn't even want to know how they'd prepared one of the suits for her. Did the government have her measurements? "Miss Horaki?" She jumped and the plugsuit slipped from her fingers, hitting the floor with a soft whump as she turned to see Captain Saotome standing in the corridor.

"Sorry to startle you," the older man said, smiling slightly. "They called me down when your medical cleared. Looks like you're in pretty good shape, should make the synchronization easier."

"Y… yes," she stuttered, scooping up the plugsuit and holding it to her chest again.

The NERV officer tilted his head to the side. "Gees, what'd they do to you in there? Ya look petrified."

The schoolgirl wanted to snap that it had nothing, or at least very little, to do with the medical check and far more to do with the fifty meter tall robot she was being asked to pilot. "I'm fine," she eventually replied, a little more shortly than she'd wanted.

Captain Saotome nodded to her and turned, starting down the hall. "Don't worry. We're going to have Unit 03 locked down, and another pilot will be on standby."

"Asuka?" Hikari asked.

"Um, no, Shinji," the older man responded.

"Ah," Hikari nodded, as the two stepped into an elevator, the strange, analogue floor display making a ticking noise that seemed unusually loud. "Um… Saotome-san?" she asked, tentatively.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking over at her.

"Well, I… Shinji and Asuka were talking yesterday," she'd been told to ask Dr. Akagi, but she hadn't seen the older woman all morning, and it was getting close to the time she'd been given for her synchronization test. "Asuka said some things about the EVAs. She called them 'kaiju,' and said something about… zombies."

"Zombies?" The captain's face wore a look of confusion. "I can see the kaiju thing, I mean, they are really big, and they do trash Tokyo… sorta, but I don't understand where she would have gotten zombies."

"She seemed upset by it," Hikari countered, "and it sounded like Shinji knew what she was talking about."

Captain Saotome thought for a moment. "There're a few things that might've been," he admitted. "But it's kind of disturbing that they were talkin' about that sort of thing so loudly in public."

Hikari opened her mouth to respond, when the elevator dinged, the door sliding open to reveal Shinji Ikari, looking somewhat queasy, and standing next to the purple haired woman from the day before.

"So, you drove, huh?" Captain Saotome deadpanned. "Thought you were going to take the tram? And where're those two Section 2 agents?"

"This way's faster, and those weenies are still up in the garage, 'recovering,'" the woman scoffed. "Hi, Hikari."

"Misato…" Captain Saotome rubbed his temples.

"You're Misato?" Hikari said, before she could stop herself. The two adults looked at her oddly. "Asuka mentions you sometimes."

"Ah, yeah," Misato smiled sheepishly. "I guess I did forget to introduce myself yesterday, huh?"

"Well, Hikari doesn't need another heart attack this mornin', we're taking the train to Matsushiro," Captain Saotome ordered.

"Aww, you're no fun," Misato replied. She laughed, though it sounded a little forced. The other two didn't seem to notice as the group began to walk, and Captain Saotome tapped Shinji on the shoulder.

"So, I hear you and Asuka were kinda… loud… in class yesterday," as the pigtailed man spoke, Misato opened her mouth, but then seemed to think better of her comment. Shinji just looked confused. "Something about EVAs, kaiju and zombies."

"Oh, yeah…." Shinji replied. "I think Asuka's kind of mad at you, Misato."

Misato blinked. "Me? What'd I do?"

"Apparently you didn't tell her about the EVAs having biological components," Shinji explained. "She somehow got ahold of this video of Unit 00…" He shuddered.

"Where did Asuka get a video of Unit 00?" Misato asked, confused.

Captain Saotome rubbed his forehead again, grumbling the name 'Nabiki' under his breath. Misato glanced at him sharply, but didn't say anything. Hikari was under the distinct impression that there was a lot going on she wasn't able to follow, especially since the bombshell had just been casually dropped that the EVAs were at least kind of alive.

HR.

She'd always liked swimming. Gliding through the water was a thousand times easier than walking, though she'd often wondered why she actually cared. She wondered if it had anything to do with the tank, or the neural pattern imprinting tube that she visited every few weeks, but dismissed the thought as irrelevant.

At the moment, it felt like she was swimming, even though the water was all around her, and she didn't feel the need to breathe. Soon, that would end, she would be pushed back into a swirling mass of images, her life played back as though she were watching a long, sometimes tedious movie.

At least the latest images had involved less staring at ceilings for eight hours straight and more reading, katas or outdoor activity, but now she knew, if she ever wrote a book herself, she would never use the phrase 'their life flashed before their eyes.' Frowning, she tried to pull her thoughts back to what was happening to her, but it was getting difficult to construct coherent patterns. She'd fought the Angel, attempted a Chi attack, and then… and then…

"And then what?" Kensuke asked, curiously, as he watched intently from the side of the field.

"And then I am supposed to move like this," Rei replied, demonstrating the beginners Kata Captain Saotome had shown her the week before.

The brown haired boy tilted his head. "I… don't get it," he confessed.

"Neither do I," Rei admitted.

HR.

"What, you don't like it?" Captain Saotome looked somewhat uncertain as he looked Hikari over.

"It's… bright orange," she replied, grimacing down at her plugsuit.

"Yeah, that is a little weird," the older man confessed. "You look okay in it, though."

"Do you think Toji would like it?" the schoolgirl asked, striking a pose.

The pigtailed man's eyebrow twitched. "Um, Misato? 'Little help?"

The purple haired woman smirked from where she'd been keeping silent against a wall. "I think we should ask Shinji this one," 'besides, I don't want to give Asuka more ammo...'

"M… me, why would I?" Shinji asked, looking up in surprise from where he'd been sitting on a bench, listening to his SDAT player.

"Well, you are a boy, aren't you?" Misato demanded.

"Y… yeah, of course!" Shinji replied, slightly more vehemently than he strictly needed to. "You look good. And at least your EVA isn't purple and bright green." He chuckled.

"Thanks…" Hikari looked down at her feet for a moment, blushing both because of the compliment and how trivial complaining about the color of the suit was. She took a deep breath, and looked back up. "All right, I think I'm ready."

HR.

"All right, Shinji, I think that's enough." Captain Saotome's voice came across the communication system that was built into Evangelion Unit 03's entry plug, and the purple and green mecha stopped in place, standing in the center of the video feed Hikari was looking at. "See, easy."

"Easy, he says," she heard Shinji mutter, but decided to ignore it.

"Yeah, all right." She searched her mind for something impressive to say, given the seriousness of the situation, and failed. "Punch it!" She may have been hanging around Toji too much recently.

Abruptly, a flurry of voices started in the control room, and the orange liquid that surrounded her cleared. A deep hum began to build, as talk of synchronization levels and restriction locks brushed past her. As a steady male voice began rattling off percentage numbers, a feeling of foreboding built up in her chest which she started forcing down. Shinji had activated Unit 01 in front of her and walked around with no problems. She could do this.

Her hands spasmodically gripped the handles on the sides of her seat. Apparently, the microphone was close to Captain Saotome and Misato, as she heard them speaking. "You know, with four EVAs, you could probably just up and conquer the world," the dark haired woman commented, casually.

"Probably what Chernabog has planned,"

"Wow, you're getting more and more obscure," Misato replied. "And yes, probably."

"Synchronization approaching absolute border," one of the techs reported, and the plug walls began to fade blurrily into another image, before sirens started to wail.

HR.

"Ms. Soryu, are you that eager to miss more of my class?" Asuka jolted as the reprimanding voice snapped across the room.

"I'm listening," she said, hurriedly. "Economic effects of Second Impact, and everything."

The teacher grimaced. "Ms. Soryu, we were talking about covalent bonds."

"Oh…" the redhead shrank down in her seat, fighting a blush.

"Just try to pay more attention, please, this is important," the teacher said, exasperated.

Asuka nodded, turning her eyes to her desk terminal, just as a chat message appeared on the screen.

"Do you know what's going on?" - K_Aida.

The EVA pilot glanced around, to see Rei's little brown haired friend giving her an intent look. She responded to the message with a simple question mark.

"Rei's missing, and now class rep and Shinji." - K_Aida.

Asuka frowned at her screen. Apparently, she hadn't been the only one thinking about that, even if she'd been the only one caught. Her response was short and to the point.

"Can't tell about some, don't know about others." - A_Soryu.

"So you do know something!" - K_Aida.

"Can't talk now, in class!" - A_Soryu.

"Are you quite finished?" Asuka jumped as she heard the teacher's voice right next to her desk, looking up to see him glaring down at her. "Ms. Soryu, Mr. Aida, is there something you want to say to the rest of the class?"

"Um, no, that's fine," Asuka replied, nervously. The teacher was about to reply, when the girl's cell phone let off the distinctive ring that indicated an incoming call from NERV. She sighed in relief, rapidly removing it from her purse and flipping it open. "Hello?"

"Asuka, we need you to come in right away," Maya's voice came back. "We're going to need to deploy Unit 02."

Abruptly, Asuka's sense of relief turned to dread. "Yeah, I'll be right there," she said, hanging up.

The teacher gave her a last disapproving look, before returning to the front of the room. "All right, judging from what I just heard, we should probably begin evacuation to shelters," he sighed, as the red haired girl left the room.

HR.

His head hurt. It hurt quite a lot, as a matter of fact, and about on a level that indicated that he'd either had a head-on collision with something large, bulky and fast moving or a few bottles of alcohol. As he tried to remember who'd hit him, a sense of nearly overwhelming deja-vu tugged at the back of his mind. Opening his eyes, he realized that he was looking into the face of an unconscious Misato Katsuragi, and he was currently a she.

"How drunk did I get?" she muttered in amazement, before her eyes took in the cracked and crumbling concrete that the two were laying on, and her nervous system finally got around to relaying the messages of throbbing pain that had previously been drowned out by her headache.

Quickly rolling off of the Katsuragi woman, the martial artist looked around, taking in the heavily gutted shell of what had once been a NERV testing complex, including one large hole, and neatly bisected set of utility pipes, that she was pretty sure she'd caused. Reaching over, she checked Misato's pulse, feeling it beating strongly.

"Hello?" a voice came from beyond the hole she'd noticed earlier. "Is anybody still alive out here?"

Ranma's eyes widened. "Shinji?!" she called back.

"Oh, thank…" The brown haired boy never finished his sentence, as his pale face poked through the hole. "I thought everybody was dead…"

"What happened?" Ranma asked, her mind still somewhat sluggish.

"I don't know," Shinji replied, picking his way gingerly over the rubble to get to her. "Unit 03 just exploded. Knocked Unit 01 over and shredded the power supply cable. I tried to stop it, but…. is Misato all right?"

"Yeah, she seems all right," Ranma replied, before the EVA pilot's previous statement finally penetrated and forced everything into place. "Damn, Unit 03," she muttered. "Does Unit 01 still work?"

Shinji shook his head. "I think all of the power outlets here were destroyed, and I just barely got it into field ejection position before the batteries died."

Ranma muttered a few curses under her breath, before cocking her head to the side. She could hear the sound of sirens in the distance, and was pretty sure they were emergency services. "Right," she muttered, reaching into her shirt pocket and pulling out her cell phone, only to get a mournful beep and sizzling sound from it, apparently caused by the water damage. "Do me a favour, don't scream so much this time, all right?"

"What?" Shinji asked, before raising his hands. "No, wait, I…." It was too late. As Ranma shifted him into a comfortable carrying position, he reflected that at least this time, there wasn't an angel trying to kill them… yet.

HR.

"Target is entering outer defense perimeter," Aoba reported, Central Dogma's technicians working to bring Tokyo-3 to full battle readiness. Commander Ikari nodded shortly, even though it would do the forward facing technician little good, as Dr. Akagi leaned over Maya's terminal, watching Unit 02's synchronization.

"Asuka, try to calm down," the short haired lieutenant said, gently. "Your synchronization ratio's fluctuating rapidly."

There was an exasperated growl from the other side of the communications line. "All right, I'll start again," Asuka grated.

"Defensive layer 1 is firing on the target," Hyuga reported, and then, moments later continued, unsurprised. "No effect."

"Like throwing rocks, as usual," Aoba grumbled.

Ritsuko's grip tightened on the back of Maya's chair as she looked up at the main screen, where Unit 03 was doing what many angels before it had already done, wading through the city's outer defenses.

"Launching Unit 02," Maya reported, a few seconds later. "I'm not sure, though, the pilot seems reluctant to engage."

"Try the ejection sequence again," Ritsuko ordered.

"Still registering a vent obstruction," Hyuga responded.

"The pilot?" Gendo asked.

"Her heart's still beating, but…"

"Then we have no choice," Commander Ikari replied, grimly. He then tapped a button on the console in the side of his chair. "Second Child, we can't shut down the rogue Evangelion from here. Engage and destroy it."

"The Pilot's still in there!" Asuka's voice came through the intercom which the commander had apparently turned on.

"It makes no difference," Gendo replied. The response was a blistering series of German invective, which was cut off abruptly as the black form of Unit 03 approached. Upon catching sight of Unit 02, one of the rogue EVA's arms seemed to stretch impossibly, barely missing a rapidly dodging Asuka.

"Wait, when did EVAs get that kind of capability?" the Second Child squawked, indignantly.

"The Angel appears to have modified Unit 03's structure," Ritsuko shot back. "Be careful."

"Now she tells me," Asuka muttered, moving rapidly down a sidestreet as her opponent gave chase.

"Second Child, you're approaching weapons cache 22-4, turn and engage," Commander Ikari sounded more than a little irritated, as the red EVA continued dashing along the streets, even if it did seem to be distracting the Angel.

"Look, I'm not shooting at Hikari," Asuka replied.

"The ejection system is inoperable, we cannot retrieve the pilot!" Now the commander was definitely mad.

Unit 02 abruptly stopped. "All right, then I'll fix it!" the pilot replied, reaching up to a shoulder pylon and retrieving her progressive knife. She ended up having to run and charge straight through several buildings while evading the angel's extending arms, but managed to get close enough to swing at the back of its neck, just before it lashed out blindingly quickly and caught her arm.

She tried to pull free, but the dark EVA latched onto the appendage, which suddenly began to itch, the sensation growing rapidly until it was like fire-ants were using the limb as a buffet. She looked down at it in horror, only dimly hearing the sounds of the technicians as she saw bulging, fibrous growths crawling towards her elbow.

"Jettison the arm, now!" Commander Ikari's voice barked, clearer than the others.

"But her nerves are still connected!" Lieutenant Ibuki, sounding panicked.

"Just do it!" That was Dr. Akagi's voice, and suddenly the pain got about five times worse, though she could somehow think much more clearly again.

"Wha… what happened?" she gasped, stumbling backwards, retreating from the angel. "This is a lot worse than the simulations..." She looked down at the stump of her EVA's right arm, then hurriedly away, doing her best to push the pain back.

"It can apparently corrupt other EVAs it touches," Dr. Akagi reported in a flat tone, making a mental note to ask Misato some pointed questions about exactly what drills Asuka had been put through later.

"Okay, so shooting it's out because it's got a pilot," the redhead started, "And grappling it's out because it can take over my EVA…" She sighed. "Sorry, Hikari. Hey, glasses guy! I need the location of the nearest shotgun."

"Glasses guy?" Hyuga asked, raising his eyebrows. "I'm not sure if it would be worse if she meant me or the Commander…" Even so, he looked it up, forwarding the information to Unit 02.

Asuka nodded, and Unit 02 began to move. Several moments later, it held the shotgun, and faced the black EVA down a large, central road. She expected it to charge, or try and snag her with one of its freakishly long arms again, but, to her surprise, it crouched down instead, and then leapt forward.

Her reaction was still quick enough, as she brought the large weapon up and pulled the trigger, sending a fragmenting artillery shell down the barrel and directly into the angel's left leg. She adjusted her aim slightly, pulled the trigger again, and the right leg vanished in a spray of blood and bone shards.

Unit 02 backed up, allowing the rogue EVA to hit the ground, crumpling. "Sorry, Hikari," She repeated. Dropping the gun, she lunged forward to get to the back of the neck and the entry plug within,. but was surprised as Unit 03 pushed up with its seemingly ruined legs, greyish tissue having grown and wrapped the shredded metal.

The red haired EVA pilot didn't have time to scream as the Angel's hand closed upon Unit 02's neck, lifting it and pitching it away. If it weren't for the fact that she felt like her trachea had been crushed, Asuka would have breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn't tried to absorb her again, as she was pretty sure jettisoning Unit 02's head would do a bit more than hurt a little.

"Okay," she panted, laying in the rubble of a half collapsed building. "That didn't work. Hey, Bridge Bunnies, any ideas?"

HR.

In central Dogma, the three techs looked at eachother, then back to Ritsuko, who shook her head. Given the fact that the pilot refused to use lethal force, and Unit 02 was already down an arm, they were at a loss. While they considered, Asuka struggled to her feet and connected her EVA to a nearby umbilical, her old one having come loose during her impromptu flight.

"Well, I've got one," the brown haired scientist whirled around to see a familiar looking redhead walk onto the command deck, her rather tattered looking NERV uniform covered in dust. Behind her, the Third Child stood, looking pale.

"How did you… Never mind," Commander Ikari started. "What is your plan?"

"Asuka, I'm going to need you to keep that thing busy," Ranma replied.

"Not like I've been doing anything else," the Second Child snapped irritably.

The older redhead ignored this, turning to Ritsuko. "Can we launch Unit 00 without endangering Rei?"

"It's theoretically possible," Ritsuko started. "As long as we're sure to keep her entry plug stable, we should be able to just continue where we left off after the EVA is shut down again, but that's entirely a guess on my part."

"Well, we don't really have a choice," Ranma grumbled. "Shinji, get to the cage."

"Wait… you want me to pilot Unit 00?" Shinji asked, his eyes going wide. "But I've never…"

"If it doesn't work, we haven't lost anything. If it does, we can get Asuka, and hopefully Hikari, out of there." Ranma replied.

"Right…" Shinji said, though he didn't seem convinced. Still, it seemed that tension had left the room, as the Strategic Operations officer's confident attitude suffused it. Commander Ikari simply leaned back, watching.

HR.

The steady parade of memories had stopped once again, though this time, Rei could feel that things were different. It wasn't random, whatever wished to see her life getting tired of it, but something happening that had caused it. The ocean seemed to shimmer and waver for a moment, and then she split from it, rising into the air and being surrounded by something.

Blinking and looking around, she found herself sitting in a subway car, somehow floating along above the waves. "Strange," she muttered, succinctly.

Sitting in front of her, seeming to stare through her into the distance, was Shinji Ikari, in his usual white shirt and black pants, holding his SDAT player. "This is nuts," the boy was muttering to himself. "Unit 03 goes berserk, an entire NERV branch dies, and now I'm piloting Unit 00." He stopped for a moment, and then blushed. "Um, nothing, Miss Ibuki."

Rei thought about this for a short while, as Shinji's image, and the train car around them, began to get clearer and clearer. She supposed it made some sense. The last memory she'd had before waking up in the water was piloting Unit 00. Was she still in it? But Shinji was somehow piloting it?

"I'm concentrating, it's just not working," Shinji snapped to nobody. "I can't synchronize with Unit 00, it's like…" he seemed embarrassed at this, "It doesn't care about me."

Of course Unit 00 didn't care about him. It didn't really care about anything, and she had to wrestle it into obeying orders through the feedback blocks that kept it from going berserk. Of course, Shinji didn't know that, and from the desperation in his voice, he really needed the machine to move.

Standing, Rei walked across the train car and put a hand on Shinji's shoulder. Suddenly, the image sharpened until it was almost painful, and then the world abruptly faded into dim, distant fuzziness. "Hey, it's working!" Shinji said, muffled as though by water. "Unit 00's responding!"

HR.

Aside from the initial difficulties in Synchronization, Unit 00 seemed to feel a lot like Unit 01 to Shinji as he stepped forward out of a false building shell that concealed one of the launch points. He quickly surveyed his surroundings, realizing that Rei's evangelion did seem to have a narrower field of focussed vision.

He caught sight of Asuka and Unit 03 quickly, as their combat had cleared out several of the un-retractable buildings on the city's edge. "About time you got here," the second child growled, her voice strained.

"Um, sorry," Shinji replied, moving towards the two battling mecha.

"Shinji, I'll need you to get behind Unit 03, I want a quick look at its entry plug," Ranma ordered.

"Just a second, let me get its attention again," Asuka cut in, hefting a chunk of cement and charging at the black EVA. Unit 03 responded with a swinging arm that the redhead had gotten somewhat familiar with by this point, and she ducked it, running past. It turned to pursue , but apparently the damage that had been done to its legs previously was enough to slow it down, giving Shinji plenty of time and opportunity to get behind it.

He moved forward, catching a glimpse of white on the black armor. A small window popped up next to him, showing a zoomed in image of the entry plug assembly, which was covered in a web of tendrils.

"Gott im Himmel!" Asuka mumbled, apparently she was seeing the same image.

"So much for just yanking the plug out," Ranma muttered.

"That was your plan?" Asuka shrieked incredulously.

"Not my worst by a long shot," the older redhead replied. "Just ask Shinji about my plan for the third…" Her voice trailed off into silence for several seconds.

HR.

"Hyuga, catapult," Ranma ordered, shortly.

"We don't have anything else to launch," Ritsuko protested, though the lieutenant was busily entering commands.

"Sure we do," the redhead replied, heading over to the emergency supply locker on the control room wall and pulling out a communications headset. Rummaging around farther back, she came out with a United Nations issue combat knife and a rebreather.

"Catapult 1 is ready, sir," Hyuga reported, as Ranma slipped the equipment on.

"Wait, you're not…" Ritsuko started, a horrified expression spreading across her face. Ranma didn't respond, heading quickly for the door and tapping the side of the headset. "Shinji, Asuka, can you hear me?" she asked, as the door closed behind her.

"What's going on over there?" Asuka demanded. "I think Unit 03's getting a bit impatient out here, and we can't dodge it forever."

Ranma's voice came through the same comm channel as the pilots, having apparently been patched through by Maya. "I'm going to get the pilot out of Unit 03. Try to keep it within a couple blocks of where it is now, and be prepared to kill it when we're clear."

"What's this 'we' thing?" Asuka asked.

Ritsuko glared at the door, and then sighed. "We're sending someone in to extract Miss Horaki. Please be careful where you step."

"All right, I'm ready," Ranma said.

"Remember," Ritsuko replied, feeling somewhat foolish, "Don't end up sleeping on the couch."

"Course not. Hyuga, launch," Ranma replied. Apparently, her headset wasn't really made for sudden acceleration, as the sound of wind rushing past it was broadcast into the room for several seconds before Maya cut it off. Looking back to her central screen, the computer tech's eyes widened. "Dr. Akagi, I'm detecting a small AT field signature in Captain Saotome's location. I've never seen it before, but the Magi identify it as red pattern."

"It's projected battle aura," the older woman explained. "Treat it as a marker for Ranma's position… in fact, mark it on the Pilots' displays."

"Projected…" Maya shook her head. "Yes, Ma'am."

Several minutes passed while Shinji and Asuka harassed the eighth angel, the two capable of keeping it off balance much more easily than Unit 02 alone.

HR.

"All right, I'm in position," Ranma spoke, the marker showing her position on the ground near Unit 02's feet. "Try not to go for its back, and if it falls over, grab it."

"You… what?" Asuka asked, turning to the marker location and focussing in to see a small human figure, a strange blue energy seeming to line her body. The EVA pilot didn't have time to be surprised, as the figure blurred forward, headed straight for the black Evangelion's leg. She gaped in amazement, almost forgetting her current position and the pulsing pain in her right arm as the figure began moving up the leg from gripping point to gripping point.

It didn't even seem to slow as Unit 03 lifted the leg, beginning to turn. Fortunately, Asuka came back to her senses in time to realize that it was turning to attack her again, and dodge out of its way. "This is insane!" she yelled, as the little marker tracked its way up the other EVA's body.

"Welcome to Tokyo-3," Shinji replied, though he seemed a bit rattled himself.

"Okay," Ranma's voice, when she spoke a minute later, sounded ragged and out of breath. "I'm going to start now, I want the plug ejected the second it's clear, got it?"

"Yes, sir." Maya responded. Nothing happened for a moment after that, until Unit 03 moved one hand up to its neck as though it were trying to swat at a troublesome mosquito. Strangely, it didn't reach into the hole in its armor where the entry plug was, simply covering it. Asuka cursed. If the plug tried to eject like that, it'd ram into the open hand at full thrust.

Diving forward, she grabbed onto the angel's arm with her good one and yanked. It unbalanced Unit 02, and both began to crash to the ground as a plume of fire flew past Asuka's field of vision.

"We got it!" she yelled, happily, as the other EVA on top of her abruptly became a dead weight. There was no response. "We… did get it, right?"

HR.

Ranma knew she was forgetting something, but had no idea what, and wasn't terribly inclined to think about it as she hung from one of the braces that secured Unit 03's plug. Raising the knife she'd brought with her in one hand, she wondered if Tatewaki Kuno appreciated that she was about to use one of his techniques to help save the world. Deciding that the answer was 'probably not,' she plunged the blade forward, channeling chi along it in a very specific pattern, and then did it again, several dozen times in rapid succession.

The girder she was clinging to, and probably the rest of Unit 03, shook slightly, and a massive rush of wind and sound buffeted her as a huge hand clamped itself over the hole she'd clambered in through, just as she saw the feeder conduits for the entry plug slide back into their housings.

"Oh right, that," she muttered, as she heard the rumbling of the priming rocket motor. Given the confined space, the backblast would probably roast her, or at the very least crush her from air pressure. Her original exit was blocked, and she probably couldn't get through it in time even if it wasn't. Of course, there was another way out, but she was pretty sure it was a bad idea. Then again, getting roasted to death was a worse one, so she let go of her handhold, and fell into the crevice between the EVA's armored plates and its rubbery skin just as it was smashed heavily from the side, and the ejection system's main engine finished warming up.

She was blinded and deafened for several seconds, and she was pretty sure her headset had flown off in the backblast, but fortunately she wasn't dead as she lay in a narrow channel in the EVA's back. "Well, that was fun," she griped, but couldn't hear her own voice.

She winced, wondering if she'd blown out her eardrums, when an itching sensation began to crawl over her legs. Looking down, she saw that her lower legs seemed to be half-submerged in the greyish skin she was laying on. Startled, she tried to pull free, but was stopped as an incredible shooting pain raced up and down her body, as though she'd hit an exposed nerve cluster. She hissed through her teeth, and her eyes widened in horror, her legs sinking in deeper as she watched.

It was obvious, when she thought about it. The angel had tried to assimilate Asuka's EVA through contact with its arm, while she had her entire body pressed against it. Trying to push off again, and this time letting out a howl of pain from the feedback that she still couldn't hear, she felt the itching start up in her hands, now, and phantom sensations running across her entire body. It was like something heavy was laying on her, and she reached out to push it off, as the darkness around her seemed to tilt crazily. And then, it wasn't dark. The light was sudden, but for some reason didn't hurt her eyes. She was looking upward on an angle, into the face of Unit 02.

Abruptly, she realized what was going on, mostly due to the fact that she'd felt her hand move, and yet knew that it was going slowly numb at the same time. The angel was absorbing her, all right, but for some reason, the absorption was giving her access to its senses. Still, this didn't really help her. Even if Hikari was now safe, she was being eaten by an angel.

And then, it happened. Ranma had honestly felt that her Chi reserves were pretty respectable. She'd been training, meditating and studying the subject for most of her career as a martial artist, and she was pretty sure, especially since Second Impact, that there were probably only a dozen people with the power she possessed. The sensation that abruptly flooded her was like an inferno compared to a candle flame, in scale. The Angel had given her access to the EVA's senses… including its Chi sense, and she was betting that it had no idea precisely how stupid an idea that was.

Grasping on to the EVA's life energy, she began moving it, feeling the pathways, like a macroscopic version of those in her own body. It moved surprisingly easily, and she could feel a taint within it, something that felt simply… wrong… compared to everything around it.

Yet again, Ranma thanked her old man's idiocy for mistaking an old aura cleansing technique for a hangover cure, and put it to work, her aura running through her body and destroying the foreign energy wherever she found it. Abruptly, as the last of the taint vanished, she fell unconscious.

END.

Wait, didn't you mean "Mines" back there, not "Mimes?"

I know what I meant.

It's really lucky for NERV that they're needed to save the world, or I think half of them would have been courtmartialed for insubordination by now, let alone the crimes against humanity.

Also, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed, don't hate us too much for ending the chapter like that, and review to tell us what you think. See you next update!


	14. Chapter 13: And the World Turns

Even if this ends up being our best writing ever, we still apologize.

Chapter 13: And the World Turns.

"Blue pattern has dissipated, Unit 03 has just attempted to act on 24 shutdown commands at once," Maya Ibuki reported. "Recovery crews are moving to retrieve the entry plug."

"Ranma?" Ritsuko asked, moving from behind Maya's terminal to Aoba's.

"We lost that AT field signature shortly after the entry plug ejected," the long haired man replied. "Scanning for it again now."

"So… is it over?" Asuka's voice rang through central dogma.

"Units 00 and 02 should pull back to retrieval points, but keep on guard," Commander Ikari ordered, as the techs in front of him continued to work, and Ritsuko began to get more and more anxious.

"Maya," she ordered, "Get another recovery crew over to Unit 03. Put them in full Hazmat gear, but I want to make sure Ranma's all right."

"Yes, Ma'am," Maya responded. "The entry plug has been found, and its pilot recovered. She's unconscious, but not badly hurt. There is no visible sign of lingering contamination."

Ritsuko nodded. "Move her to the quarantined medical section for the time being, and I think we can retrieve Units 02 and 00 now."

Several minutes later, Maya's console chimed, and she pulled up a status window. She was about to yell a status report to Dr. Akagi, when she stopped and actually registered what she was seeing. Her face abruptly paled, and she picked up the telephone receiver next to her terminal, speaking into it rapidly.

"Maya, did you find something?" Ritsuko asked, walking up to her terminal.

"Nothing!" the technician yelped, moving her hand over the keyboard to banish the report she'd been looking at. "No, um, not you," she continued. "Yes, I confirm…" She gulped. "Move the material into a biological containment unit and send it down to holding."

"I see…" Ritsuko said, her eyes flicking from her junior's pale face to the computer screen. "I'll leave you to take care of that."

"Yes, Ma'am," Maya replied, turning back to her terminal and holding back tears.

"Commander, Doc, we might have a problem," Aoba reported, in his usual steady tone. "We just removed Shinji's entry plug from Unit 00 and re-inserted the other one… We've lost the ego trace."

"What?" Ritsuko snapped, rushing over to the man's station and shoving him out of the way. He stood, allowing her access to his chair as she began to type rapidly. "No… no… no…." she muttered to herself, windows popping up and vanishing before her eyes so quickly that it was hard to believe one person could track them. "Maya, stop whatever you're doing, begin recovery procedures now!"

Commander Ikari watched impassively as the control room exploded into activity again, the two computer administrators shooting reports back and forth, Hyuga eventually being dragged in to work on the less complex sections of the procedure.

"We're not getting anything!" Maya reported, "there's just no ego there to anchor the process to!"

Ritsuko didn't respond, only staring at the terminal screen as it informed her that all possibility of retrieving her daughter was lost.

HR.

"What do you think's going on?" Shinji asked, as he sat in his entry plug, hanging from a recovery arm in the EVA cages.

"I'm not sure," Asuka replied. "But whatever it is, I don't think it's good news. We wouldn't still be in here if it was."

"I wonder if Ranma and Hikari are all right," Shinji mumbled.

"Ranma…" Asuka shook her head. "What the hell is that… thing?"

"Thing?" Shinji snapped. "Ranma's nice, he's just… a little weird."

"A little weird is that kid with the camera and the military fixation," Asuka shot back. "Humans just plain don't do what I saw out there. Unless he's Master Asia… and he doesn't exist!"

"Master who?" Shinji asked, before shaking his head. "Never mind. Ranma told me he could fight an Angel once, at least for a little while. I just didn't know he was serious."

"...Right," Asuka replied. She considered reiterating the fact that it was impossible again, or commenting that Shinji kept referring to the person who had helped them as 'he' when she'd heard and seen a female, but things were weird enough already, and she didn't want to tempt fate any further. "They'd just better tell us what's going on soon. I hope Hikari's all right."

HR.

The rush of water filled her ears, as vents emptied the large cylinder in which she stood, and her legs took her full weight. She stumbled slightly, staggering forward as the front of the tube slid away, and tried to blink orange liquid out of her eyes. For a fleeting moment, she felt as though she'd done this all before, but the feeling passed and she looked around.

She was in a large, dimly lit room with three clear walled rectangular tanks lining the walls. Inside of each were dozens of identical looking older girls, gazing blankly out at her. She turned away from them, uninterested, to see a brown haired woman standing next to a computer terminal near one of the walls and looking at her expectantly. "Rei?" The woman called, a slight tremble in her voice.

"Dr. Akagi?" The woman smiled, relieved, but Rei was confused. "I do not understand, you are dead."

"What?" the woman asked, startled.

"Dr. Naoko Akagi died shortly after the Magi computer system was completed," Rei clarified, but this only seemed to deepen the woman's startlement.

"Rei, it's me, Ritsuko," the woman said, walking towards her. At Rei's blank expression, she continued, starting to sound desperate. "You live with me, my husband Ranma, and Shinji Ikari…. remember?"

Rei slowly shook her head. As the woman abruptly crumpled to the ground, sobbing, the girl tilted her head. She was unsure what she was supposed to do. "Those living arrangements would be acceptable," she stated, but if anything, this seemed to make the woman react even more strongly. "Was that response incorrect?"

Dr. Akagi seemed to forcibly bring herself back under some control. "...No, Rei, it's fine," she began. "There are some clothes in the next room, please just… get dressed."

"Yes," Rei nodded, and began to walk towards the door. Something felt off, and the suspicion was confirmed as she seemed to overbalance, falling forward onto her face and feeling twinges of pain from her chest and nose, instead of just her nose. Puzzled, she rolled over and sat up, studying her body and noting that it had gotten much larger than she remembered.

"Dr. Akagi," she called, and Ritsuko looked over to her. "Something is wrong. My body's physical dimensions seem… different."

"How so?" the doctor asked, climbing to her feet and walking over.

"I seem to be much taller than I am accustomed to," Rei replied, "and there are strange weights on my chest."

"I…" The doctor blinked. "Rei, how old are you?"

"My age on record is eight years, however I believe my physical age is closer to four," she replied, promptly.

Dr. Akagi twitched, and made a sound similar to a strangled laugh. "Of course you are," she muttered, darkly, and turned to look at the computer terminal she'd originally been working at. "Well, you should probably update that to officially being fourteen," she stated, and offered Rei a hand. "I'll help you move around until you get used to your new center of gravity."

Rei nodded, and took the doctor's hand.

HR.

"So, that's Master Asia, huh?" Shinji asked, as he sat on the couch next to Asuka, watching an anime scene where a grey haired man was slicing giant robots to pieces with a scarf.

"Yeah," Asuka confirmed, absently scratching Pen-pen's head. "He's pretty cool until he becomes one of the bad guys."

Shinji nodded. "Ranma can't really do all that… I think, but he is a martial artist, and, well, I guess he can climb EVAs."

"I guess," Asuka shrugged. "I wonder if I could learn to do stuff like that?"

"Ukyo-san knows some of it," Shinji replied. "That's how she was training us before."

"Huh," Asuka shook her head. "Maybe we should ask if she can keep doing it?"

Shinji thought for a moment. "It wouldn't really bother me. It's kind of nice having someone else my age working there."

"Working… oh, right," Asuka winced. Then again, she had gotten pretty good pay at Ucchan's. She was interrupted before she could comment more, as the front door opened, and Misato walked in, a bandage wrapped around her head.

She took in the sight of the relaxing pilots and penguin, before smiling. "Glad to see you worried about me."

Asuka smiled back. "Just figured you passed out drunk someplace."

"Glad to see you two are all right. Heard you managed to save that new pilot today."

"Have you heard anything about Hikari?" Asuka asked, leaning forward.

"She was in the same medical block they checked me out in," Misato responded. "They're just making sure the Angel didn't do anything too permanent, then they'll release her."

Both pilots sighed in relief, causing Misato to notice Shinji for the first time. "Hey, Asuka, I thought I told you no boys over until you're older."

"Um, I'm sorry…" Shinji started, before being interrupted by Asuka.

"She wasn't serious, dummkopf," she grumbled. "Apparently Saotome and Akagi were being held up, so I invited him over to watch some G-Gundam."

Misato snorted. "Trying to assimilate someone else into your hobby, Asuka-chan?"

The second child shrugged. "Good anime's good anime."

"Well, don't stay up too late, and don't be too loud," Misato ducked into the bedroom, the DVD case Asuka had thrown at her head smacking the door frame.

HR.

"You're awake." Hikari Horaki blinked up at the fluorescent light over her bed, before turning her head to the side to see an older, grey haired man sitting in a chair in front of a darkened window, holding a manilla folder.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice somewhat slurred.

"We're not entirely sure," the man responded. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"They were testing me for synchronization with the EVA," she started, slowly. "There was some shouting, and an explosion… and then I was… at school?"

"You were at school?" The older man's eyebrow was raised.

"Someone kept asking me questions," she nodded. "It wasn't the teacher."

"What kind of questions?" the man demanded. "How did you answer?"

"I… I don't know," she admitted. "It's hard to remember."

The man frowned. "If you do remember anything, please inform a NERV officer immediately."

"I will," Hikari agreed. "But can you tell me what happened?"

"Evangelion Unit 03 was infiltrated by an Angel," the man explained. "The Matsushiro complex was destroyed, and the Angel continued to Tokyo-3 to…"

"Is everyone all right?!" Hikari interrupted. "Shinji was there and…"

"Pilot Ikari is fine," the man answered, after Hikari trailed off. " We managed to eliminate the Angel with minimal casualties. We will discuss the rest at the debriefing tomorrow."

Hikari nodded again, and the man stood, tucking the folder under his arm and leaving the room. As the door closed behind him, Kozo Fuyutsuki rubbed his forehead. Normally, Captain Saotome or Dr. Akagi would have questioned the recovering pilot, but neither was an option, for obvious reasons in the former case. Akagi had been working with Pilot Ayanami for a time, and afterwards had locked herself in her office, ignoring any calls. He supposed he couldn't blame her, but he was hoping that she would start responding before he had to call security.

HR.

Misato winced at the sound of the can of coffee noisily dropping into the receptacle at the bottom of the vending machine, before reaching down and picking it up. She could still feel a headache pounding away at the back of her brain, but the night's sleep had taken the edge off. Popping the tab on the can, she briefly wished that it was Yebisu, before reminding herself that Commander Ikari had asked to see her, and walking into his office with a beer in her hand was probably a really bad idea. Not to mention Ritsuko always warned her about mixing alcohol and medication.

As she rode down the escalator in the center of the NERV complex, still sort of impressed at what a sheer waste of space it was, she wondered what she'd been called about. Had the commander found out about her snooping around? She doubted that Ranma would have reported her, but it was possible. Straightening her shoulders and deciding that if he had, she'd just have to deal with it, she stepped up to the doors, and after a few seconds, heard the soft click of the lock releasing. Pushing them open, she stepped in to see Commander Ikari in his usual position behind the desk, Sub-commander Fuyutsuki at his right side.

"You wanted to see me, Sir?" Misato asked, trying to keep her eyes from tracing the strange pattern inscribed into the room's floor.

"Yes," Gendo nodded. "As you know, there were a number of casualties during yesterday's Angel attack. You have all of the qualifications for one of the vacated positions."

Misato raised an eyebrow. "What about my current job?"

The commander responded in kind. "Miss Katsuragi, we both know that your current position was a poorly fabricated excuse to place you within this facility."

The purple haired woman did her best not to show her surprise at the statement. Unfortunately, it was impossible to know if she'd succeeded, as his eyes were masked by those damned glasses, and his hands crossed in front of his mouth. "What position is it I'm qualified for, exactly?"

"Strategic Operations Officer," Ikari replied, bluntly. Misato staggered back, surprised. "You attended the same training schools as Captain Saotome, and had very similar scores. To tell the truth, I would have preferred you, if you hadn't left the country so suddenly."

"But why would you…" Misato stopped, as all of what the commander had said suddenly connected in her mind. "Ranma's dead?"

"Captain Saotome was killed in yesterday's battle, yes," Gendo nodded. "I assumed you'd been informed."

"I… um, hadn't." The statement seemed fundamentally inadequate, but she didn't really have any other to offer.

"Will you be willing to take the position?" Gendo asked. "We will need it filled quickly, as we are not sure when the next angel is going to arrive."

Misato thought for several moments, but the end result wasn't really in question, and she knew that Ikari knew it. She wanted information, and he was serving it up on a silver platter. "I accept," she said, quietly.

Ikari simply nodded, before producing a spiral bound book from a drawer in his desk, and a small box. "Captain Katsuragi, you will have the rest of the day to become acquainted with your new position. This book contains Captain Saotome's personal notes." His smirk did not make her feel comfortable, but she ignored the feeling, reaching out to take the book and box that she was sure had a NERV captain's rank insignia inside.

"Thank you, Sir," the purple haired woman saluted the commander, who nodded back, before making it clear that she was dismissed with a gesture. She managed to wait until she was out of the room and away from the door before flipping open the notebook, but it was a close thing. Squinting down at the first page, she frowned. It seemed like what Ranma laughingly called chicken-scratch was even worse than usual.

"If you're reading this, you're most likely Makoto Hyuga, Misato Katsuragi, Akane Tendo or Ritsuko Akagi. Hyuga, stop reading this or Fuyutsuki might shoot you; If you're actually allowed to be reading this, congratulations on somehow managing to get promoted to my old job. Hi, Ritsuko-chan, nothin' to see here, unless you're helping someone else read this, in which case… uh… Sorry I got myself killed, and help whatever poor schmuck Ikari saddled with this job as much as you can. Akane, how the hell did you get ahold of this? They definitely WILL shoot you, so run. And burn this book, it might help. Misato, I'm pretty sure it's you. I recommended you, after all. This notebook contains everything I know about NERV that's not in the official manuals. Hopefully, if it wasn't an Angel that got me, it'll help you avoid the same fate. Good luck, and please, protect the kids."

Closing the book for the moment, she tucked it in a pocket, and continued to the elevator.

HR.

"Hey, Ayanami, it's good to see you around again," Asuka called, as she and Shinji entered the briefing room. The first child didn't respond, staring down at her hands clasped in her lap. "Ayanami, did you hear me?" she asked, grasping the other girl by the shoulder.

Rei looked up, and slowly nodded. "I heard you."

"Hmph, if you want to be snippy about it," the redhead grumbled, deliberately picking the seat on the opposite side of the table.

Shinji looked between the two for a moment, and then settled next to Rei. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I am well," the first child replied, but didn't elaborate. The three fell into an uncomfortable silence for the next few minutes, and Asuka was about to break it when the door swung open, and most of NERV's higher ranked officers entered, followed by a skittish seeming Hikari. Everyone seemed to know where to sit, and the new pilot ended up positioned between Shinji and Asuka.

"Glad to see you're all right," the second child whispered, smiling.

"Yeah," Hikari said, though she gave Asuka a rather hard to read look.

As the redhead looked around the room, skipping over Hyuga and Maya setting up some computer presentations, she caught sight of Misato fiddling with something on her collar. Squinting, she figured out what it was. "Hey, Misato, you got promoted, congratulations!"

Rather than the happy or bragging response Asuka expected, Misato reacted as though she'd been burnt, pulling her hand away from her collar and looking down, frowning. "Yeah, thanks," she returned listlessly.

The rest of the table's occupants looked at the purple haired woman strangely for a moment, before commander Ikari cleared his throat. "Captain Katsuragi has been appointed the new Strategic Operations Officer," he explained blandly.

"What happened to Ranma… er… Captain Saotome?" Shinji burst out.

Gendo's eyebrow raised, and he turned to Fuyutsuki. "Has no one been informed of the Captain's death?"

"I felt it would be best to inform the pilots during this debriefing, Sir," Fuyutsuki replied. "Until her promotion, Captain Katsuragi knowing wasn't a priority."

"Is this a surprise to anyone else here?" the commander grumbled, adjusting his glasses.

Shigaru Aoba raised a hand, but lowered it as he realized no one else had.

"I suppose, since it has been brought up," Gendo continued, "it should be explained." He nodded at Maya, who tapped a few keys on her keyboard, causing an image of Unit 03's entry plug taken from Unit 00's point of view to appear on a large screen at the side of the room.

"The Angel that took control of Unit 03 blocked its entry plug so that it couldn't be ejected. Captain Saotome managed to remove the blockage, but was killed in the process, most likely by the backblast of the ejection rocket."

Asuka looked down the line of other pilots. Shinji's mouth was hanging slightly open, and Hikari looked like she was going to start crying, but Rei was surprisingly impassive. For her own part, Asuka felt somewhat detached. Someone had died, and it was sad, but she hadn't really known Captain Saotome, and the fact that there may or may not have been two of them was starting to give her a headache.

The second child was jolted from her thoughts as the commander spoke again. "While the Angel was stopped, and the pilot was rescued, yesterday's incident was not handled in the best fashion. Pilot Soryu, when you are given an order, I expect you to follow it."

"What? But I couldn't…" Asuka started, but was stopped as the commander pinned her with a glare.

"We were extremely fortunate that the pilot was able to be extracted. If she had not been, and you refused to fight until Unit 02 was immobilized, Tokyo-3 would have fallen. You do not have the tactical information or training to make those decisions on your own."

Asuka opened her mouth to argue, but she had to admit that the only things she could think of were lines from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and she was relatively sure they wouldn't convince the man. "Yes, Sir," she finally said, feeling like she was chewing nails.

Gendo nodded. "Ms. Ibuki, could you step us through the chain of events that occurred yesterday, please?"

Maya turned and began speaking as she showed various video segments of the Angel attack. The presentation was only interrupted by a few procedure or clarification questions, until the last few frames of video from the end of the battle, where Unit 03 glowed with an aura of blue light that seemed vaguely familiar to Asuka, and the grey flesh that held half of the machine together by that point dissolved explosively into LCL.

"So… Unit 03's been destroyed," Hikari cut in, surprising Asuka. "Does that mean I'm no longer a pilot?"

"Actually," Hyuga spoke up. "I can see how you'd think it's been destroyed, but the central body and S2 engine are intact. We can regenerate the limbs in a month, tops."

"The EVA's core is likely still calibrated the same way it was before it was compromised." The pilots jumped, having not heard Dr. Akagi speak before this point from the far corner where she was sitting, hunched over a laptop. "If Pilot Horaki could Synchronize with it before, she likely still can."

"Oh…" Hikari said, her voice conveying obvious disappointment.

"Since we've finished running through the events of the battle, Pilots, is there anything else you would like to ask?" Sub-commander Fuyutsuki asked.

"What's the matter with Rei?" To Asuka's shock, it hadn't been her who'd blurted that question, but Shinji, who was now looking at the first child for some form of reaction.

All of the adults looked at each other, but it was obvious that most of them didn't have an answer, either. Finally, Dr. Akagi spoke. "We're not sure," She admitted. "Rei was in an… accident with Unit 00 a few days ago. While she is physically recovered, she's lost a large portion of her long-term memory."

Asuka and Shinji nodded slowly, though both could tell that Dr. Akagi's voice was stressed. "Will she recover?" Shinji asked.

"I… We don't know," she admitted quietly. "We're going to do everything we can to help her, though."

HR.

Nabiki Tendo stood in the small public park, looking casually around and taking note of who she saw. Most of the NERV employees she saw, she didn't recognize. Ritsuko was huddled with Misato and a younger woman with short cut black hair, and the EVA pilots, plus one she didn't recognize, were standing under a tree. She felt rather awkward, as the only person here who wasn't wearing a NERV insignia or under the age of fifteen.

Moving up to the table in the center of the clearing, she peered at the image set on it, of Ranma in a NERV uniform, saluting the camera. "Most inappropriate thing they could have found," she grumbled, irritably.

"What would you have chosen?" She almost jumped out of her skin as she heard the voice, and whirled to see a grey haired man looking at her with a slightly amused look on his face.

"Don't do that," she growled, and then thought about what he'd asked. "I dunno," she responded. "But he should have at least been giving the camera a victory sign, maybe photoshop in his girl side sticking her tongue out."

The old man snorted. "That sounds about right, yes," he admitted. "You knew him, then?"

"Went to high school together," she explained. "Milked him for every yen he had."

The grey haired man quirked an eyebrow. "You sound almost… nostalgic about that."

She shrugged. "Things were a lot simpler, then."

"I suppose so," the man agreed, walking past her and up to the table, where he started arranging things.

Nabiki looked around again, but this time she caught sight of something she'd been waiting for since she'd arrived. Her older sister was walking into the park, her husband next to her and Mr. and Mrs. Saotome behind. The whole small group was being lead by Ukyo, who for once wasn't wearing her usual battle gear, and Kaji.

"Kasumi!" Nabiki called, walking quickly up to the group and waving. The taller brown haired woman greeted her with a hug, before they stepped back. "Tofu-Sensei, Uncle Genma, Auntie Nodoka," she nodded to each of the other newcomers.

"So glad you noticed us," Kaji said, with a smirk that only diminished slightly when his wife landed a hard looking elbow in his ribs.

"You're pretty hard to forget, yeah," Nabiki responded. She didn't wait for the man's response, as he seemed to be fully occupied regaining his breath. "I see little sis didn't make it."

Kasumi frowned, giving her a look that clearly said 'did you have to be so blunt about it?'

""Akane-chan couldn't get away," Nodoka explained. "The defence base has apparently been running some large training operation all month."

"Girl shouldn't interrupt her training for this, anyways," Genma grunted. "I'm going to beat the hell out of the damned boy when he shows up. I bet he thinks this is funny!"

"Husband!" Nodoka snapped, horrified, as Ukyo glared mini-spatulas, and even Nabiki's eyebrow was twitching. Behind her, two men were giving each other incredulous looks, the one with longer hair half way through a move for his sidearm.

"You honestly think Ranma faked his death?" Nabiki gave the panda-man a scornful look.

He crossed his arms. "Bah! As if Ranma could be killed off in military service."

"That'd be sweet if it wasn't so stupid," Ukyo grumbled. "You've never felt an Angel, have you old man? You can feel them in the shelters, you know. Sort of an overpowering pressure, like Happosai at full steam, only worse, and they're usually half a mile away."

Genma hmphed again. "Whatever you say, girl," he muttered, turning away and stalking off for an unoccupied area. Nodoka looked between Ukyo and her husband for a moment before following him.

"Why am I not surprised?" Nabiki sighed.

"So, do any of you know what happened?" Ukyo asked. "There was an Angel attack a couple of days ago, so I'm guessing that was what did it, but…"

Both Nabiki and Kasumi shook their heads. "A Lieutenant Hyuga from NERV called me and informed me about it," Kasumi explained. "He was rather light on details."

"And of course you contacted the rest of us," Nabiki nodded. "I'm guessing the only one who would be willing to tell us anything is Ritsuko, or maybe Rei or Shinji…" She looked speculatively over at the cluster of pilots. "With that Asuka girl there, though, they're not going to tell me anything."

"Oh, why won't they tell you?" Ukyo asked.

"I think I came off a bit too suspicious last time I talked to her," Nabiki explained. "She thought I was nosing around for information."

"Were you?" Dr. Tofu asked.

"Yes, but that's beside the point."

"I've been meaning to talk to Shinji anyways," Ukyo said. "I'll go see what I can find out. Come on, Kaji."

"Yes, dear," her husband said, leaning out of the way of a second elbow and smirking almost as maddeningly as Ranma.

"I think I know why those two got together," Nabiki muttered, causing Kasumi to giggle.

Ignoring the commentary behind her, Ukyo walked casually up to the pilots, quickly surveying them. Asuka looked solemn, but relatively normal, Rei seemed to be staring blankly at a nearby tree, the new pilot who she recognized as Shinji's class representative had been crying, but wasn't at the moment, and Shinji himself was staring at the ground and fiddling with a blade of grass in his fingers.

"Shinji-kun, Asuka-san," she nodded to her two former students, the group as a whole turning to face her. Taking in the look on his now visible face, she decided that desperate measures were in order. "I thought I'd see you before now," she offered. "Was wondering if you wanted to borrow one of Konatsu's old formal Kimono."

The third child unsurprisingly started glaring at her, though the fact that the second followed his lead was a bit of a surprise. "I only do that for work, I said!" Shinji denied, hotly.

Ukyo shrugged. Glaring at her was better than sulking at the ground. "Whatever you say," she replied. "How are you guys holding up?"

"About as well as can be expected," Asuka said, uncomfortably.

Ukyo nodded, and was about to make her doomed-to-failure attempt to subtly find out exactly what had happened to Ranma, when the quickly suppressed sound of microphone feedback was heard from the center of the park, followed by an amplified throat clearing.

The okonomiyaki chef suppressed the urge to mutter curses as a grey haired man began one of the most evasive speeches she'd ever heard. By the end of it, the only new things she knew were that Ranma had been posthumously promoted to Major, and had died in some stupidly heroic manner. She supposed that had been the point, and almost had to commend the old man for sheer ability to say nothing of consequence while sounding poignant.

It was obvious that the old man's speech had marked the end of Ranma Saotome's memorial service, as most of the NERV employees began filtering out after it. A few, including the man who had almost pulled a gun on Genma and the woman who had been talking to Misato and Ritsuko stayed to help clean up. "I think I'll help those guys out," Ukyo said, turning to the pilots. "You guys come into Ucchan's any time, all right? Shinji, come back to work whenever you feel up to it, but don't take too long. The customers might start missing their favourite waitress."

"Grrgh," Shinji articulated, before rubbing his forehead. "I guess we should probably get going," he offered. The others nodded, and headed for the gate where Hikari's sisters were waiting to take her home.

HR.

"Is there something wrong?" Dr. Tofu asked, as he and his wife sat on the subway returning to Tokyo-2. Kasumi had started looking around nervously shortly after they'd left the park where Ranma's memorial service had been held, and was now fidgeting with the hem of her dress.

"Is there anyone around paying attention to us?" she asked, in a near whisper.

Tofu raised an eyebrow at the odd question, but dutifully opened up his refined aura senses. "No more attention than the usual… why?"

Kasumi didn't respond audibly, instead reaching into the small odds and ends pocket sewn into the side of her dress, and producing a thumb drive. "Nabiki slipped it to me when she hugged me," she explained.

"Do you have any idea what it is?" Tofu asked, concerned.

Kasumi shook her head. "I'm worried. If she felt it was worth this much secrecy… Nabiki told me she might do something like this if she thought what she was doing was dangerous. I just laughed it off." She squeezed the thumb drive in her hand. "What has she gotten into?"

Tofu placed a comforting hand against his wife's shoulder, but he also doubled the distance of his aura scan.

END.

Well, another one down. We hope you enjoyed. Please R&R even if you didn't.


	15. Chapter 14: Conspiracy - True or False

Chapter 14: Conspiracy - True or False.

This was wrong. The entire place just felt wrong. For one, it was too crowded, and the shape differed from the room she was used to, the window even being on the wrong side. For a person whose life depended heavily on order and routine, it was very disconcerting. Of course, nothing about the last three days hadn't been disconcerting, from finding that her body had changed drastically to meeting people who knew her, but whom she didn't know.

Walking carefully across the room, compensating for her center of balance, she stopped in front of a bookshelf, loaded with volumes of various sizes, and picked one at random. "So long, and thanks for all the fish," she read, quietly. Skimming through the first few pages, she discovered that this was definitely not a textbook, unless dolphins really were a lot smarter than she'd previously assumed.

She slid the novel back into its correct place, and looked around again. Her eyes then traced over the paper strewn writing desk, the schoolbag hung on a hook on the door, and oddest of all, the miniature of a JSDF tank sitting on her bedside table. Yes, the room had far too much in it.

HR.

"What the hell is this?" Gendo Ikari raised an eyebrow as Ritsuko Akagi slammed a paper down onto his desk. He knew she was coming, of course, her penchant for high heels gave her away even if she had the passcode to open his door without buzzing in.

"That is a transfer order for pilot Ayanami," Gendo retorted, not even bothering to look at the paper.

"It says she's to be assigned to staff housing," the woman grated.

Gendo nodded. "It was felt that given your recent losses, especially with regards to the first child herself, having her moved out of your residence would be preferable for both your and her mental well being."

Ritsuko snarled. "Since when have you given a damn about the pilots' mental well being?"

"And outbursts like that are precisely my point," Ikari returned. "Lieutenant Ibuki has reported that you have barely slept for the past week, and still haven't done so even after the crisis ended. You're tired and over-stressed, and the first child's current condition could provoke a reaction."

The scientist looked incredulous. "You think I'm going to hurt Rei because I'm overtired and she's lost her memory?"

"The tendency has been shown in your family before," Gendo said blandly.

Ritsuko reared back as though she'd been slapped. "You bastard!" She was halfway over the desk when Gendo raised a hand, and a strong arm grabbed her from one side. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Sub-commander Fuyutsuki gripping her tightly and giving her a steady look. She slumped, the fight having apparently left her. "You're right," she admitted, reluctantly. "But putting an amnesiac with the skillset of an eight year old into staff housing isn't the solution."

Gendo leaned back in his chair and brought his fingers up in front of his face. "What would you suggest?"

Ritsuko didn't speak for a moment, thinking things through as rapidly as she could. "Assign another caregiver to Rei, possibly both of the pilots. She and Shinji seem to react well to living together, so splitting them up might be a bad idea. Perhaps get Captain Katsuragi to look after the other two along with Pilot Soryu. She's managed to do a fair job raising her."

"Katsuragi's apartment is hardly large enough for that," the commander objected.

"We could assign her another one," Fuyutsuki cut in. Gendo shot him an unreadable look.

"I could switch apartments with Misato," Ritsuko offered. "No extra budgeting required, and we wouldn't have to move pilot Ikari."

"That's very altruistic of you," Ikari said, irritated.

"The idea seems workable," Fuyutsuki offered.

The commander nodded. "Make sure that Captain Katsuragi understands this is not an order, and ask her opinion. If she agrees, we will implement this plan."

"Yes sir," Ritsuko said, turning to leave.

Once the doors closed behind her, Gendo grunted in annoyance. "Why did you support her plan?"

Fuyutsuki just sighed, moving to his usual position at his shoulder. "Because it made sense, and it would look suspicious if we turned it down for no acceptable reason."

Gendo frowned in disapproval. "This chance to fix the mistakes made with the first child is unlikely to come again…"

"Yes, but making things too obvious would be counter-productive, especially involving Akagi," the older man reminded.

"I suppose you're right," Gendo grudgingly agreed. "It's just.. the time is finally approaching."

The older man grunted noncommittally.

HR.

Misato needed a drink. Scratch that, Misato needed a bar and an unlimited tab which, come to think of it, she could probably get away with requisitioning in her current position. In front of her lay several piles of paperwork regarding an Angel battle she'd been unconscious for, a solid five pounds of NERV procedural manual, and Ranma's little grey notebook.

The latter had been the first thing she'd read, of course. It contained everything from his theories on the composition of the angels, which she was pretty sure you had to be a chi master to understand, to an annotated list of nicknames for Commander Ikari and their origins.

To tell the truth, she was a little impressed, given how disorganized she knew he was, though the suggestion that she foist most of her classification rank 4 or below paperwork on Lieutenant Hyuga might have explained some of it. She'd originally dismissed that idea, but as the papers piled up, she was starting to see it as more and more attractive.

As she was reaching for another repair priority clarification request for a section of the city's defenses, she was interrupted by a knock at her door. "Come in!" she called, shuffling the paper back into the pile.

"Okay, who did what and how bad?" she demanded, when she saw Ritsuko enter, her face practically the picture of restrained anger.

The brunette slumped into the chair on the other side of her desk. "Commander Ikari tried to put Rei in staff housing."

Misato sucked her breath through her teeth. "Since you said tried, I'm guessing it's not going to happen."

"That depends," Ritsuko responded. "I suggested they select another caregiver and recommended you. If not you, then I'm hoping one of the others will agree."

"Wait, you recommended me?" Misato asked, her eyes tracing over her half-visible desk again. "And why can't you keep doing it?"

Ritsuko spoke through clenched teeth. "The Commander thinks that the stress I'm under due to Rei's memory problem and Ranma's death might compromise my judgement."

"Well, if you recommended me, I'd say he's right," Misato commented, attempting to bring some humor to the situation. Given the rapid negative turn in Ritsuko's expression, she'd apparently failed.

"Damnit, Misato!" the brunette burst out, bringing one fist down on the table. "Ranma's gone, Rei can't even remember me, and now he… he wants to take her away from me…"

Misato cursed under her breath, and rapidly moved around to her old friend's side. "Ritsuko, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… Look, if the other choice is her living alone, I'll take care of Rei. She can't be any worse than Asuka, right?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "Thank you, but..." she said, trying to pull herself together. "The full arrangement is for you to move in to our apartment and live with all three children, while I take yours."

"...Shinji too?" Misato's voice was somewhat small at the prospect of three children living with her, especially given one of them was male, even if Shinji was well behaved. It was pretty obvious, though, that Gendo had at least a bit of a point. The way Ritsuko acted, moved and talked she was heading for a breakdown, if not there already, and having Rei, or Shinji for that matter, around when it happened wouldn't be pretty. "Oh well, at least he'll be fun to tease."

"Misato!" Ritsuko snapped, shocked.

"Joke! Joke!" the purple haired woman hastily reassured.

HR.

"Regeneration in affected areas proceeding at 132% normal speed," Maya Ibuki reported, not really speaking to anyone in particular, but the tradition of announcing the more important notifications from their positions had gotten so ingrained by now that it was hard to stop.

"The benefits of an S2 engine," Hyuga stated.

"Just so long as it doesn't start roaring and trying to eat us again," Aoba drawled, not noticing Maya's violent flinch.

"We've run all the tests we could think of. Genetic comparison, spectrographic scans, even physical analysis. There's no way that angel could still be in there… right?"

"That's what the higher-ups think," Aoba replied. "They want this thing ready to pilot within the month… if its pilot will even get in the plug after last time."

"I could understand her not wanting to, but…" Hyuga was interrupted as the phone next to his terminal rang. "Hello? Yes, I'll be right there."

"So, who was that?" Aoba asked, after his fellow tech hung up.

"Captain Katsuragi," Hyuga answered. "She wants to see me in her office about something."

"That should be fun," Aoba muttered.

"You have a problem with Captain Katsuragi?" Maya asked.

Aoba looked around to ensure that Fuyutsuki wasn't liable to stroll through the command room's door half way through his statement, and then spoke. "There's just something off about her, that's all," he opined. "She shows up, wanders around looking over people's shoulders for a couple of weeks, then instantly gets promoted to fill Saotome's old post when he dies? Something stinks here."

"That is a little unusual," Hyuga admitted, before his eyes widened. "Something strange was going on the day of the last angel's attack. Captain Saotome actually ordered me to flag his card and tell him when it got used."

"That is strange," Maya admitted.

"Well, if she's doing something shady or not, I probably shouldn't keep her waiting too long," Hyuga responded, then laughed. "If I'm not back in a day, wait longer."

"That's not funny…" Maya grumbled.

HR.

Shinji Ikari rolled off of his bed as he heard a loud knock on the front door. The only other one in the apartment at the moment was Rei, and she hadn't seemed inclined to do anything when he'd talked to her last, so he figured he should probably get the door.

Walking down the hall and through the living room honestly felt a little creepy, with the place so quiet, to the point he actually jumped when he heard another knock. "Why am I so jumpy all of a sudden?" he muttered, before pulling open the door to see Asuka on the other side, pushing a handcart piled high with boxes.

"Hey Shinji," the redhead smiled. "I told you I was going to come replace you, and here I am!"

"...right," the third child said, slowly. "I guess I should show you to my room, then."

"Yup," Asuka's expression faltered for a moment, but she quickly regained it. "Is there a spare electrical outlet in the kitchen?"

"I, um, think so," Shinji answered, confused. "Next to the stove."

"Good," Asuka nodded, pulling her handcart in past Shinji. Behind her, having previously been obstructed by her pile of boxes, a penguin pulling a cart of his own marched in, a fancy looking mini-fridge on it.

"Buwha?" Shinji asked, looking oddly at Pen-pen.

"Wark," the penguin responded, beginning to move his fridge over to the plug the boy had indicated.

"Come on," Asuka snapped, interrupting the third child's staring. "Where's the room!"

"Oh, right, this way," he replied, hurriedly leading her down the hall. As they went, Rei's door cracked slightly open and a red eye peered out, but it closed quickly after she got a look at what was going on.

"Is she feeling any better?" Asuka asked.

"I don't think so," Shinji replied. "She's still really quiet, and I've heard her pacing around her room a lot today."

"Oh," the second child responded, before Shinji opened a door and stepped back from it.

"Geez, Shinji, You know I was just… joking… right?" Asuka asked as she entered the room, only to find it completely empty. She immediately spun, glaring at him. "This isn't your room!"

"How do you know I don't just pack really quickly?" Shinji asked, a small smile on his face.

The redhead snorted. "Okay, that one was pretty good," she admitted. "So, you know why I came down here?" At his shake of the head, she continued, "Apparently Misato and I are supposed to move in here. You and Ayanami have been transferred to her guardianship. Hey, I don't suppose you'd mind cooking all the time, right? Misato's food has ten times the daily recommended limit of instant ramen."

Shinji's head was spinning. "W… what about Dr. Akagi?"

"I don't know," Asuka admitted. "I just got a frantic call from Misato telling me what was going on and to move my stuff. I think she's not doing well at adjusting to her new job."

"Her new job…" Shinji winced, recalling precisely why Misato had said new job, and why the house felt more empty than usual, now.

"Hey, you going to stand there staring at your feet, or help me move?" Asuka demanded, pulling the third child out of his suddenly dark thoughts. "We've got work in a couple hours.

"You're going back to work at Ucchan's?" Shinji asked, confused.

"Hey, anything to help my piloting," Asuka shrugged. "And the pay's not too bad, either."

"Right," Shinji said, before beginning to unload boxes from Asuka's hand cart. "Have you thought of how you're going to get your bed down here?"

"Sheist!"

HR.

"Are you sure we have to go this far?" Kasumi asked, as her husband hooked up the old computer in the kitchen of the apartment they had above their clinic.

"If Nabiki was paranoid enough to act like someone out of an old spy movie, overkill isn't a bad thing," the brown haired man said, flicking a switch on the back of the machine and then pushing a button on the front. "This old thing doesn't even have a network card in it anymore, let alone a wireless transmitter."

Kasumi nodded, then waited through a long bootup sequence, before typing the password she'd set when she was sixteen. Luckily, she hadn't forgotten it, and the desktop popped up a few minutes later.

"Let's hope Nabiki kept her data simple," Tofu muttered, plugging the memory stick Kasumi had been handed into the USB port. a folder immediately opened containing several text files and jpg images, one of the text files being labelled " ."

The first line read, "Kasumi, I thought I told you not to open anything like this I handed you unless I was dead? I really hope you took proper precautions when opening it, because the data I've found just might have gotten Ranma killed. Paying attention? Good."

"Oh my," Kasumi said, faintly, as Tofu's hand fell onto her shoulder. The rest of the first file explained what all of the others were, including a from-memory transcript of a conversation where Ranma had threatened to kill Nabiki, but also explained several things about the Evangelions, some data she'd accumulated about NERV and its connected entities, and an image slide show of Evangelion Unit 00 eating an angel.

"This…" Tofu started, unsure precisely what to say. If half of what Nabiki had revealed were true, something had to be done, but he had no idea what, and he was fundamentally ill-equipped to handle it.

"Why would Nabiki give this to me?" Kasumi asked.

"That's actually a really good question," Tofu replied. "Presumably, she's already doing something in Tokyo-3. Does she want us to try and help somehow, or to sit on it in case she's killed?" Neither could answer the question.

HR.

"You know, we could have just asked Section 2 to do this…" Shinji grunted, as he took another step, the edge of the box spring jabbing into his back.

"Aw come on, Shinji. We can do this, you've just got to put your back into it more!" Asuka called from the landing above, where she was gripping her own half of the bulky item. "Besides, we've only got one flight to go."

"Easy for you to say," Shinji grumbled, taking another step and wincing. "Besides, my back's already as far in it as I want to go."

"Are we… interrupting something?" an amused voice cut through the brown haired boy's thoughts, and he turned his head to see Dr. Akagi and Misato looking up at them bemusedly.

"Nope, we're almost done!" Asuka replied, pushing forward and causing Shinji to step down another step in response. "The bed frames and mattresses are already down there."

"That's nice and all," Misato said, "But first, my bed should have been left up there, and second, couldn't you have called Section 2 for this?"

"Why does everyone keep asking that?" Asuka asked, annoyed, releasing the box spring to put her hands on her hips. Shinji squawked in alarm as the weight on his back increased, stumbling forward.

"Um… a little help?" the third child asked, struggling to keep his footing. The two adults readily obliged, taking the weight off of him and helping him down the rest of the stairs with it.

"Oh, um, sorry about that, Shinji," Asuka said, sheepishly.

"It's not a problem," he said, rubbing his back as Misato and Dr. Akagi began moving the box spring into the apartment.

Once it was leaned against a wall in the long hallway, Asuka asked, "Okay, so why isn't Misato's bed supposed to be moved down here?"

"Because I'm going to be using it," Dr. Akagi responded, levelly.

"You're leaving?" the question came out much more loudly than Shinji had intended. "Why?"

The brown haired woman paused for a moment, thinking. "My workload has increased quite a bit," she explained. "Misato has agreed to look after you for a while, until it calms down."

"Oh…" Shinji replied, downcast.

Misato slapped him on the shoulder. "Oh, come on! Living with me won't be that bad, will it? You'll get to try my chili and beer, and you get to hang around with Pen-pen!"

"Wark!" the penguin chipped in, from where he was watching the conversation from the end of the hall.

"No, it's not…" Shinji shook his head. "I didn't mean to imply that living with you would be bad or anything…"

"Too bad, it will," Asuka chipped in.

"Gee, Asuka, thanks," Misato gave the redhead a faux glare.

"I should probably get my things," Dr. Akagi said, turning to move down the hall, to the large steel door near one end. when it closed behind her with a loud clang, everyone else looked at each other for a few moments.

"So, is anyone else hungry?" Misato offered. "I have raman!"

HR.

Ritsuko ignored the sound of the door creaking open, most of her upper body buried inside of a large conglomeration of wires. From behind her, she heard a long whistle.

"That sign wasn't kidding, was it?" Misato's voice exclaimed. "And why did you have this place locked with a code I had to get off of Lieutenant Ibuki?"

"I need to finish this, Misato," the scientist replied, clipping together two ethernet cables.

"So, that's why you excused yourself so quickly, hmm?" Ritsuko could hear the creaking of her comfortable computer chair as Misato settled into it.

"What, and you wanted me to tell Shinji that his father ordered me not to live with them anymore?"

"You're concerned about Shinji's relationship with his father?" Misato leaned forward in the chair.

"I'm concerned about Shinji," Ritsuko corrected.

"And Rei?" The silence stretched for more than thirty seconds before Misato spoke again. "It's getting pretty late, shouldn't you get some clothes from your bedroom?"

Ritsuko shrugged, before realizing that the other woman probably couldn't see her shoulders from where she was. "Could you pack up any of my clothes? You'll be using that room, probably. As for anything else you don't want to use… just pack it in the closet."

"I… see." Misato stood. "I'll go do that, then." When the door had closed, Ritsuko resumed working.

HR.

Rei stared at the ceiling. She'd counted the tiles several times already, though disconcertingly, at one point the numbers had seemed to change. Pacing around the room simply reminded her of all of the things that she had no association with, but were there, regardless, and she felt somewhat restless.

Normally when she felt like this she would go to the pool, but she had no idea where it was from here, and wasn't very inclined to leave her room and ask. Still, at some point she would have to. Keeping her body in good condition was important, at least that was what she had been told, and one of her priorities.

She pondered this for a few minutes, once more counting the tiles, and reassured herself that the time she'd counted too many was an aberration. Deciding on a course of action, she stood from her bed, proceeding out of the room. When she got to the hallway, she looked down it in both directions before noticing that the second and third children were visible in the room at one end, sitting and talking.

"So, was she mad?" the second asked.

"No, Ukyo-san said she understood that I had to help you move in, and we can come in whenever we want," the third replied.

Rei walked down the hall, stopping in front of them. "Do you know where the nearest swimming pool is?"

"...huh?" the third child asked.

"The nearest swimming pool," Rei repeated, unsure why the request was confusing. "Where is it?"

"There's one a couple of blocks from here," the second said. "But it's a bit late to be swimming, isn't it?"

Rei turned, looking to the window and noting that it was dark. "I don't see the problem."

"Just trust me, it's a bad idea," the second replied. "Why did you want a swimming pool, anyways?"

"I wanted to exercise my body."

"Well, we've got the workout room," the third offered. "It's at the end of the hall, to the left."

Rei nodded, and then turned, walking back down the hall.

"Geez, a 'thank you' would have been nice," the second said, but Rei ignored her.

HR.

"Shirt, shirt, uniform, skirt…" Misato muttered to herself, as she folded and packed clothing from the closet. She was getting bored, and honestly sort of tempted to go back into that room full of cat pictures and computers to tell Ritsuko to do it herself, especially since she'd packed up most of the pictures and other items around the room already.

Jerking a wetsuit out of the way, she blinked. "Oh, hello there…" she exclaimed, catching sight of a set of underwear on a hanger. More specifically, a full corset, thigh-highs, and garters. "Ritsuko, you vixen…" she laughed, before quizzically holding the clothes up to her own body. She blinked as she found that they almost certainly wouldn't fit her, obviously too small.

curious, she checked the tags. "These wouldn't fit…" she started, before looking into the closet again, and noting that the next thing in line was one of Ranma's NERV uniforms. "Oh… OH!" The dark haired woman dropped the garment like it was on fire. "I… had no idea," she muttered, picking the underwear back up and putting it in place.

She was relatively sure that Ritsuko wouldn't want Ranma's clothes, and didn't feel like dealing with them herself, at the moment, so she took one last quick glance around the closet to make sure she hadn't missed anything in preparation for taking the box she'd packed out to the living room. Catching sight of a carved wooden box on the upper shelf she'd missed before, she grabbed it and pulled it down, assuming it was a jewelry box or something.

Instead, the box had "To Rei" written on the top in pencil, which would probably give any carved-wooden-box collector fits. Recalling what had happened the last time she'd mentioned the name "Rei" to Ritsuko, she decided that asking about it wouldn't do her any good, as one source of information wasn't talking and the other was dead. Her actions sufficiently justified, she curiously cracked the lid.

Inside, all she found were several tightly rolled scrolls, a computer disk, and a letter, also marked "To Rei" in Ranma's distinctive mostly legible handwriting. Deciding that opening a sealed letter was a step too far for curiosity, she closed the box and put it on the bedside table, resolving to give it to the girl later.

HR.

"Where the hell am I now?!" Ryoga bellowed, drawing his breath in much more calmly than he'd just expelled it. Still, his current excursion hadn't exactly been productive, or pleasant. He hadn't found the boy he'd been looking for, only to find out that he'd been found already and no one had told him about it, then he'd almost had his soul eaten… twice. He shuddered at the thought of those vacant red eyes.

To top it off, he'd apparently managed to piss off someone's secret police… again, and had spent the last week or so dodging angry guys in dark suits.

"Oh, Ryoga, it's good to see you!" The lost boy whirled at the sound of the familiar voice, landing in a defensive position in front of Kasumi, who tilted her head curiously. "Are you all right?"

"Oh," he laughed nervously. "I'm fine. Just thought you were someone else, that's all."

"I see…" Kasumi said, "It's good that you came, though. I wanted to ask you for a favour."

"A favour?" Ryoga wanted to be cautious, but it was Kasumi. It wasn't like she would ask him for anything too difficult, and he was already wandering.

"Yes," she nodded. "Come in, please." Saying this, she backed away from the doorway she'd been standing in while speaking to him, and he realized that he was standing in front of the clinic that she and Dr. Tofu shared.

He followed her in, only to see Tofu leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "We're clear," the doctor said, adjusting his glasses.

"Good," Kasumi nodded.

"What's going on?" Ryoga asked, noting that both of the others seemed somewhat tense.

"Like I said, I need to ask you something," Kasumi started. "I need you to go and find as many of your and Ranma's old friends as you think would listen to you, and get them to come here."

Ryoga blinked. "What? Why?"

"There's something going on," Tofu explained. "It's big. We're not sure what it is yet, but we're just taking precautions."

I… see," Ryoga lied.

"Good," Kasumi nodded. "I'll get you some of Tofu's business cards with the clinic's address, but please, whatever you do, don't mention any of this to anyone you don't know, or in Tokyo-3. Just pretend you don't know anything about it."

"But… I don't," the lost boy responded, confused.

"Very good," Kasumi said. "Thank you for doing this, Ryoga-kun."

"It's… not a problem," Ryoga replied, briefly dazzled by the eldest Tendo's smile, and reminding himself sharply that he had a wife, she had a husband, and she smiled at everyone like that. "I'll just get going, then… but could you guys tell me where the Unryu farm is?"

"We're south of it," Tofu answered. "If you travel west towards the main road, then go down that, you should be fine." He pointed, knowing that it wouldn't do any good, but obliged to try.

Ryoga nodded, hiking up his backpack and heading out the door.

"I wish we didn't have to be so vague about things with him…" Kasumi said, nervously.

"So do I, but it's needed," Tofu responded, before blinking. "You… did tell him about Ranma though, right?"

"Oh… oh my…"

END.

Hi again, folks! Sorry for the lack of action in this chapter, but some stuff had to be done. We hope you enjoyed it, anyhow.

Not much more to say, so please R&R, and happy reading!


End file.
